Arc One: Maybe Forever Original Vers
by gamblerrikku
Summary: This is a repost of the original story, because I forgot that I had linked to it from sites that actually censored the under-eighteens. Nothing new, Maybe Forever is still be re-written! Don't Review, PLZ. Arc II is the next part of this story, CH20 !
1. Prelude

GR's Note: _I've edited and re uploaded chapters 0-12, 13 and 14 will come shortly. _

_Thank you to all who've read an reviewed, I appreciate the input!_

- Prelude -

"Tsunade-hime, one of the chuunins of Team Kakashi wishes to speak with you."

"Let her in." The door to the Fifth's office shut, then opened and quickly shut again.

"Shishou-sama ... I wish to resign from Team Kakashi for a while." Tsunade looked up from her paperwork briefly only to notice the kunoichi's cheeks flushing faintly.

"Is there a particular reason for this sudden change in attitude, Sakura? I won't remove you unless it's a good one." She looked back down at the medical chart on the desk.

"Actually, I wish to spend an extended amount of time training and traveling. Mostly It's to see the other Hidden Villages and to improve myself for the sake of the village." Sakura bowed respectfully as Tsunade glared in annoyance at the chart on the desk.

"You understand that this is a dangerous time to be away from the village, Sakura. The Akatsuki are moving faster than ever, and Konoha ninja are being targeted more and more."

"I understand that, Shishou-sama, but the village may be safer without me here. The Akatsuki know that Sasori was defeated by a pink-haired kunoichi from Konoha, wearing red."

"They also know that the Kyuubi is here, so I doubt that you're putting the village in any more danger than Naruto himself is. However, if you truly understand what it entails, I can't stop you from leaving." Sakura straightened up. She hadn't expected such an answer.

"You're an excellent kunoichi, Sakura. Whatever you do, do with confidence. Don't give up, and make your friends and your village proud of you." Tsunade had gotten up and patted the girl's shoulder, giving her a friendly smile. Sakura beamed and nodded.

"Thank you, Shishou-sama."

* * *

Sakura stood under the town gate, looking back in on the village with a peaceful and sad smile. The dawn was breaking as she slowly turned and started her long walk away from home.

"Slipping away silently, like Sasuke-kun?" A quiet and commanding voice spoke, belonging to the tall white-haired man who had appeared out of the dark forest. The mask he wore covered the lower part of his face, making it difficult to tell if he was smiling, implying a joke. Sakura looked down at the dirt and turned pink.

"It's not like that, Kakashi-sensei. It's just that... the goodbyes would be a little to much. I don't know how long I'll be gone." She shifted her bag's weight on her shoulders, still staring down at the pebbles in the dirt.

"Relax, Sakura-chan, I was kidding. I came to see you off so that you'd know that at least one person will be waiting for you to come back." Kakashi strolled over to Sakura and ruffled her pink hair as she looked up and turned pink herself.

"Team Kakashi won't be the same without you, so don't stay away forever." As she turned to say good bye, she realized that he had already disappeared.


	2. 01

-1-

"Kakashi! A woman was just attacked at the border bu-" I clicked the radio button to respond.

"Go help her, Yuuko." Bandits again?

"No, that's the odd part. She dealt with them by herself, I watched her!" Strange...

"Is she a ninja?"

"Undoubtedly. I'm following her as we speak."

"Cease pursuit, you need to stay at your post, Yuuko. What village is she from and which direction did she head?" The forest floor sped by underneath as I leaped from branch to branch towards Konoha.

"Unknown, she's not wearing a protector. Be cautious Kakashi, she killed 7 men with a mass genjutsu and headed north from checkpoint 4. She has brown hair and a blue dress, she might be a missing nin." I clicked my microphone off. A missing nin was bad news. I changed course to intercept and came across another jounin on patrol and stopped briefly.

"Shikamaru. There's a possible missing nin heading towards Konoha, I might need your help to stop her." He sighed and rolled his eyes up, indicating that he didn't want to be bothered with something so troublesome, but followed me as I continued on.

It wasn't very long before the girl in question came into sight. I stopped Shikamaru and he hid out of sight as I did. She was just walking down the road, brown hair bobbing back and forth in time with her steps. That walk was, however, familiar. She was kinda cute actually, with blues eyes and a petite frame along with some nice assets. Actually... she looks exactly like Mayu, a minor conquest from Icha Icha Tactics Vol. 7. Odd, but still very interesting.

As she passed the tree where I was hiding, she perked up, looking around quickly. She looked the tree up and down, quickly settling her eyes on me. Staring directly at me, she smiled sweetly, As she did so, her eyes changed all at once from blue to green, her hair shortened and appeared bubblegum pink, and her dress changed from blue to a red top and black shorts.

"Thanks for waiting, Kakashi-sensei. I appreciate it." Her lips never moved, and she reverted as quickly as she had changed. I shook my head, unsure of what I had seen. Shikamaru glanced between the girl and I, obviously unaware of anything I had just seen or heard. Absently, I plucked an empty report scroll from my vest picket, scrawled a quick note in it and handed it to Shikamaru.

"Take this to Tsunade-sama." He sighed and disappeared. She was still staring at me with those fake blue eyes, smiling and watching me. I hopped down from the branch and landed among the roots of the tree.

"It's been awhile, Sakura-chan." I leaned against the tree, unable to think of anything to say to her. It had been far too long. She just smiled at me, twirling a strand of her fake brown hair between her fingers.

"I missed you, Kakashi-sensei, I missed everyone. Even Naruto." The smile softened and turned a little sad. I could feel myself turning ever so slightly pink underneath my mask. Not necessarily because of what she said, but the way she said it. It gave me a shiver down my spine.

"You should get back to the village. Naruto's been worried for you, not to mention Ino and the other girls. Tsunade-sama will already know you're back, so you should hurry." I tried not to think of Mayu's chapter as she stood there, continuing to twist her hair, but this time looking sheepish.

"Was I really gone that long? It seems like It's only been a few months, and everything's going to be the same when I get there, like I was just on a mission or something." She turned and resumed walking towards Konoha's main gate, letting out a sigh and shifting her bag on her shoulder. I followed her, walking a few steps behind her, careful not to let my eye wander where it shouldn't.

"I see your genjutsu skills have improved considerably while you were gone. How was the rest of your training?" It was hard to believe it had been only six years. Naruto's worrying and whining made it seem much longer. And her absence by itself had made the team just seem to be missing a huge part of itself. She took a backwards glance at me and grinned happily.

"It was productive, and fun. Some of the other Hidden Villages are so cool." I smiled at her enthusiasm as she continued.

"I'll have to take my jounin exam soon and make use of it on some A-rank missions! Oh..." She turned her torso and rummaged through her bag as she walked. She pulled out a green book that was all too familiar.

"Jiraiya-sama gave this to me to give to you. I saw him in the hidden village of Sand a few days ago." She held the book out to me and smirked. I turned a little pink and took the book from her, thumbing through it. It was the newest one, not supposed to be on shelves for almost a month.

"S-Sakura... Jiraiya gave you this for me?" She nodded and put a finger to her lips.

"This is what I looked like while I traveled. Jiraiya-sama gave me the idea, So when I look like this, I'm Mayu, not Sakura." I looked at her blankly and pointed at the book in my hand.

"Have you read...?" She giggled and twirled, her skirt fanning out.

"Have I got her down or what?" She winked. I nodded, realizing she was just teasing me.

"Oh, we're here..." She looked up at the town gate, eyes shining. She smiled, wiping her eyes.

"It's nice to be back."


	3. 02

-2-

"We're here." I breathed a small sigh of contentment, wiping my eyes with my fist. I raised my arms and twirled around, laughing happily. It felt so nice to be here again.

"Sakura, what are you doing still listening to that perverted Sannin?" I stopped at the obviously irritated voice coming from a gorgeous black-haired jounin. I crossed my arms over ample breasts, resenting his reference to Jiraiya-sama.

"Who I take advice from isn't any of anyone's business, nor is the company I keep, if you were planning on going into that one again." When I brought him back to the village my familiarity with the snowy-haired Sannin managed to cause quite a rise in him, particularly after I modeled my day-to-day identity off of a favorite character in one of his works.

"Regardless, I'm glad to see that Shishou-sama didn't throw you out on your ass when I brought you back, Sasuke." I performed the seal to undo the henge I had spent most of my time in for the last six years. A puff of smoke and an explosion of sakura petals, and I shivered. I felt very... stripped, being mostly unused to my own, far less appealing frame. I sighed and patted my chest, disappointed at how little I had filled out or in fact, grown at all. The only real show of time was my hair, which I hadn't bothered to cut and was, as a result, brushing the tops of my thighs under the hem of my shorts.

I looked back up in time to hear a chuckle from my sensei, no doubt amused by my disappointment. Sasuke advanced slowly towards me, allowing me to see that he had grown at least a foot taller than me since I had brought him back here. He stretched out his hand to me with a gentle and completely out of place smile.

"Thanks, Sakura. I owe you, for everything." I took his hand and shook it, but was pulled in quickly, a strong left arm wrapping around my back, his head resting on my shoulder. I was all too aware of his hair tracing along my collarbone, and blushed, despite not feeling the same for him as I used to.

"I'm sorry for what I did, and I know it wasn't right. I can't ask for your forgiveness." I felt incredibly guilty at hearing his touching words, mostly due to the fact that I hadn't forgiven him. Not yet.

"Sasuke... You finished what you set out to do, and I'm glad you can move on now. I did what I did not because I forgave you, but because I wanted you to have your second chance here. I'm sorry... I'm just not quite ready to forgive you." 9 years ago I would have killed myself for saying anything of the sort. He released me and backed up, his lips briefly brushing my cheek as he did so. He smiled, albeit sadly.

"I had expected as much. Whenever you do decide to forgive me, I'll always be here for you. As a friend or otherwise, Sakura." His voice was sad as he performed the seal and vanished in a burst of fire. I sighed inwardly. I didn't mean it to sound so mean.

"You don't seem so pleased anymore, Sakura-chan." I cast a backwards glance over my shoulder at my silver-haired sensei, leaning against a pillar and already indepth into the mysteries of the newest Icha Icha book.

"Well, besides the loss of a bombshell body, I've only been here for five minutes and already I've made someone sad. What kind of fresh start is that?"

"Bombshell bodies are more trouble than they're worth, Sakura-chan, and about Sasuke... he's been remorseful ever since you helped him kill Itachi and brought him back. He'll feel that way until he's served his penance. That's just the way it is." I hefted my bag and started to walk in the general direction of my house. Kakashi obviously noticed this.

"You know Tsunade-sama will be waiting for you to go see her. You should go there first." I shook my head, rolling my eyes at him, of all people, hinting that I shouldn't be late.

"I'm going home to drop off my stuff and put on some appropriate attire." I may not have grown much, but I did so just enough to ensure that my shinobi outfit was a little too short, a little too tight and a little too tattered. I waved at my sensei, walking slowly and opting to take the back way, the road near the training grounds. Not only because I didn't really want to run into anyone else, but also because I wanted to be there again.

I smiled as I eventually stopped in front of the gate to the grounds Kakashi always trained us on, absently placing a hand on it and sorely tempted to go in. I looked around at Hokage tower and decided that a few minutes weren't going to matter after six years. I pushed on the gate and let my self in, basking in the nostalgia as I strolled slowly through the forested area towards the clearing.

It was already occupied, I quickly learned, as I saw three young genin throwing kunai at three red and white circular targets, for the most part not actually hitting them. No jounin in sight among the two young kunoichi and single ninja. I continued to watch and reminisce about my own genin days as the three started to get bored. The smallest kunoichi started throwing kunai at the boy standing about ten feet away, and in retaliation, he started to throw them back. As the second girl tried to mediate, tempers flared and a fistfight started between the two nin.

A burst of red smoke and a hand appeared to pull the mediating girl out of harms way. Quickly afterwards, the two young nin were forcibly pulled apart and tossed each to a different end of the compound. The small kunoichi who had been fighting, charged at the jounin who had appeared from the smoke with the fervor of a raging bull, jumping on his back and climbing up to piggyback his shoulders, grinning widely. The ninja tossed to the other end like a rag doll was sitting up groggily. I watched as he pulled her down from his shoulders, ruffling her blond hair much like Kakashi-sensei had done to me as a genin. Apparently she didn't like it any better than I had. As their sensei went to check on his other student, the smallest kunoichi noticed me watching them.

"Sensei! Who's the pink-haired hag?!" I scowled at the little brat's rudeness. She was exactly like Naruto when he was first made a genin.

My back spasmed in pain as I was tackled in a joyful, if not overly painful bear hug. I blushed a bright pink as I realized I had just been tackled by said blond-haired ninja, now a jounin. I tried to push him off me, but he stood up of his own accord, bringing me up with him. I looked at him, realizing that he was as tall as, if not taller than Sasuke. I also noticed his eyes were flooded with tears as he looked back at me.

"I'm sorry, Naruto..." It was everything I could do to swallow back my own tears at making the sweet knucklehead cry. I was pulls into his arms again, his lips resting on my forehead.

"We've missed you... We've missed you so much, Sakura. Here you are, you're back, and you're apologizing to me, when I should be apologizing to you. I was the one who promised to bring Sasuke back, but you went and got him anyway. I'm sorry, Sakura... I just missed you so much." I hugged him tightly.

"I missed you too, Naruto, you have no idea how much I missed you, and Kakashi-sensei..."

"Yukiko, I think that's sensei's girlfriend..." I blushed.

"No, Suki you dummy! His girlfriend's that Hyuuga chick, the one with big-" Abruptly Naruto let go of me and rushed after the smallest kunoichi with what could only have been murder in his eyes. I laughed out loud. Apparently Naruto may not be as dense as we all thought, if he finally wised up to Hinata's behavior. I watched as he grabbed the small girl and tied her to the target post, well above the ground and much to the entertainment of her comrades. I smiled, remembering Kakashi-sensei doing the same thing to Naruto himself for a different reason.

"It's nice that you're a sensei now, Naruto. Your team certainly seems familiar, anyway." He grinned.

"I always did make a good girl, didn't I?" I laughed as his eyes flashed. I remembered my first encounter with his sexy jutsu and wondered how many new perverted jutsus he had come up with in my absence. Being trained on and off by Jiraiya-sama himself, I can only imagine there are a lot of them.

"Naruto, when you have a minute, come to my house later, we can talk more then. I have to go see Shishou-sama before she gets really mad that I'm late." I turned and ran, realizing that I had spent way more time than I had wanted to in the grounds.

"Bye, Sakura-chan!" I turned to see him waving and waved back quickly, high-tailing it out of there. I ran as fast as I could until I got to the area of town where my house was. I stopped to catch my breath and continued at a slower pace, turning at street corner after street corner until I reached my house. I had a visitor.

"Shishou-sama!" The surprise at seeing the busty blond kunoichi anywhere other than the hospital or her office was obviously apparent from the annoyance portrayed on her face. She wasn't even trying to hide her irritation at having to come looking for me. Glancing around trying to avoid her angry stare, I noticed my sensei leaning against the stone wall beside my gate, still with his nose buried in his Icha Icha Tactics.

"Kakashi informed me that you arrived in the village over an hour ago, and that he advised you come straight to see me. Why did I have to come looking for you, Sakura?" I scratched my cheek sheepishly. Kakashi-sensei had that unmistakably amused expression on his face. It annoyed me that he did this on purpose. He probably even knew why I was so late.

"I ran across an old team mate and just had to chat, Shishou-sama. I'm very sorry." I bowed respectfully as she let out an aggravated 'hmph'.

"I've spoken to Jiraiya as well. Don't pick up all your sensei's bad habits, Sakura. Get settled and come see me in a couple of days. I have a mission for you." She formed the seal and disappeared in a blueish smoky poof. I shook my head dazedly and wondered why she was really so annoyed. Blushing what could only be a radiant shade of crimson, I wondered exactly what habits of my sensei's Jiraiya-sama had spoken to her of.

I cast a sideways glance at him, but he hadn't moved, and hadn't made any move to speak to me. I shrugged and shoved the gate open, a little rusty from disuse. I wandered the path to the recently abandoned house, scrutinizing the building. I approached the door and went to unlock it, discovering, much to my dismay, that it was already so. Confused, I opened the door cautiously, drawing a kunai and stepping inside. I shut the door behind me silently, slipping off my boots and tiptoeing into the darkened house. I didn't need to go far to feel another chakra in the house, one not mine.

I wasn't alone in here.


	4. 03

-3-

I could feel the chakra of another shinobi in the house. I moved quickly and quietly, systematically checking every room of the house as I approached the back hallway and all the bedrooms. I thought to go in mine first and as I opened the door, the other shinobi's presence disappeared into nothing. I warily checked into the small room, completely untouched in six years. I went in and immediately threw open the windows and curtains, flooding the stuffy, dark room with rosy pink light and a fresh breeze.

I looked around, taking in my old lifestyle. Closet full of clothes, shelves full of jumbled reference scrolls, a desk with old pictures and a small single bed with cotton candy pink bedding. God, I used to be boring.

I took my bag and dumped it unceremoniously on the bed, shaking out the contents roughly. I started to put away the scrolls, spare kunai and medic's kit, but I was at a loss as to what to do with my newest bad habit.

I took a look at the pile of green and orange books cascading off of the bed and tried to decide where to stash them, minding the fact that I didn't really want anyone finding out about this particular guilty pleasure, so to speak. Thinking about where I used to hide stuff, I remembered the loose board in the back of the closet and decided I didn't have to much choice to keep them out of sight. I took the numerous books and piled them gently in a spare box, careful to keep them all in order.

I opened the closet and was confronted by a whole lot of red. I groaned, realizing that I'd have to go through it all and find out what, if anything, still fit me before I could have a shower and change into clean clothes. Newly exasperated, I shoved the hangers aside and pulled the loose panel off the back wall. Surprised, I dropped the panel. There was a small package wrapped in red paper with a small card. I picked them up gently and laid them on the desk, hurrying to put the books away before Naruto or worse, Kakashi-sensei caught me.

Intensely curious, I picked up the gift and opened the card. There was just a little poem, but the writing was familiar enough that I got truly excited at the prospect of a birthday present from him.

**Happy Birthday! Here's**

**A special present for you.**

**Careful who you show.**

Quickly I ripped open the wrapping paper, smiling at the little book with the pink and red cover. Icha Icha Reverse! I blushed slightly that Jiraiya-sama had written a book especially for me, and that blush quickly turned to a massive nosebleed as I took a look at the cover page.

The protagonist was most definitely me, down to the last detail. Even the tattoo I had done last year by a talented kunoichi in the hidden village of Sand was represented. Seeing who he had decided to portray me with, I had to drop the book and go search for a box of tissues. Finding some, I clutched them to my nose to stop the waterfall of blood.

A knocking at the window made me jump in surprise, hurriedly nudging the novel I dropped under the bed to hide it. At seeing Sasuke and Naruto there, my nose started bleeding anew. I quickly went to the window and opened it, aware that I must look pretty strange to the mismatched pair. Naruto wasted no time climbing in the window and sitting down on the bed.

"You two do realize that houses have doors for this sort of thing, right?" I took away the tissues, replacing them with a fresh one. Sasuke leaned in the window, crossing his arms on the sill. I cleared my throat and pulled Naruto away.

"Naruto, is Jiraiya-sama in the village today?" I whispered in an effort to avoid Sasuke hearing me. He scowled at me and Naruto, indicating that I had failed, while the blond ninja freaked out.

"What did he do to you?! He caused that nosebleed didn't he, I'll kill that pervert!" Naruto was up and had knocked over Sasuke leaping out the window. I rushed to the sill to yell at him.

"Naruto, he didn't do anything! Naruto, wait! GET BACK HERE!" I tried to hop up onto the sill, but Sasuke stopped me.

"He'll confront the perv, get his ass handed to him and be right back. Most likely accompanied by said perv or possibly Kakashi. But... seeing that Kakashi's not late, he's probably not going to be turning up anytime soon." Sasuke crossed his arms over the sill again, mimicking my position. He glanced at me cautiously, as if choosing whether or not to pose a question.

"So what did the old pervert do?" I blushed and thought about the book tucked just under the bed.

"He just gave me a present. I wanted to thank him." Sasuke looked at me in alarm and suspicion, his ire rising to his voice.

"What kind of present, Sakura?" I slid backwards in an attempt to move away from him, but he caught my wrist, squeezing gently. I shook my wrist to make him let go, but he gripped tighter, pulling me back towards the window. Shocked, I punched him in the jaw. Standing up, I hopped out the window to stand on level ground with him.

"Sasuke, I'm going to make this very clear. My relationships are none of your business. What I get from a good friend for my birthday is none of your business. I could be sleeping with him and it would still be NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" I punctuated this remark with another punch, this one to the chest. Lucky for him they weren't real punches.

"Who are you sleeping with, Sakura-chan?" Two voices in unison, one amused and one thoroughly enraged. Sasuke got to his feet in a hurry, wrath spread over his face. I grabbed his vest to make sure he didn't do anything incredibly stupid.

"You think so little of me, Jiraiya-sama! I'm a pure and innocent young woman!" I put on an innocent pout, but it only elicited a chuckle out of the Sannin, Most likely because I was still holding a tissue to my nose. Naruto looked at me like I was out of my mind.

"Anyway, may I speak with you alone for a minute, Jiraiya-sama?" I smiled a cute smile, letting go of Sasuke's jacket to climb back into the house. The sannin materialized in the room just as I slammed the window shut in a fuming Sasuke's face.

"I see you're enjoying your birthday present, Sakura-chan." He chuckled again, looking extremely proud of himself. I shut the curtain to avoid Sasuke using his sharingan to read our lips.

"Does Kakashi-sensei really look like that under his mask?!" I couldn't help the excitement creeping into my voice.

"Sakura-chan, what a question! You know perfectly well that I only draw from real models!" I couldn't help it, my nose started bleeding again, if it ever actually stopped. The sannin laughed at my reaction. Someone banged at the window, but I wasn't done asking questions yet.

"So then Naruto and Sasuke both..." Jiraiya-sama nodded, finding my reactions altogether too amusing. They banged at the window again and this time, I went and opened it, drawing the curtain back too. As soon as I did, Four voices all speaking to me at once.

"I have more research to do, Sakura-chan." Jiraiya disappeared.

"WHAT'S GOING ON, SAKURA?!" Both Naruto and Sasuke yelling at me.

"Sorry I'm late, guys." I saw black.


	5. 04

-4-

"Sorry I'm late, guys." Nobody even waved. Naruto and Sasuke had just finished yelling something at Sakura, and were now just standing outside the window, looking horrified.

"What happened?" They continued ignoring me, Naruto hopping up on the sill and in the room while Sasuke just looked confused and distant. I took Naruto's place at the window to see Sakura passed out on the floor of a very pink bedroom, presumably hers, with one foot up on the bed and Naruto shaking her shoulders gently. Alarm bells went off in my head.

"What happened, Sasuke?" His gaze narrowed and he punched the wall beside the window.

"Jiraiya happened, that's what." So saying, he disappeared,leaving me to deal with it. I didn't quite understand what he meant about Jiraiya being the cause, however. I hopped up onto the sill, hesitant about actually entering the young lady's room, former student or not. Naruto was still trying to bring her around and I noticed that her nose had been bleeding. I smiled a bit, realizing both why Sasuke was angry and that this wasn't serious.

"Why don't you give her a kiss, Naruto? It worked for Sleeping Beauty." Naruto's gaze darkened, not entirely in anger.

"That's not funny, Kakashi." I smiled. It was obvious he still had a crush on his former teammate, but he had a girlfriend now.

"I was just kidding, Naruto. Here, bring me her medic kit." I pointed to where I could see it on the shelf. He did so with less than a smile and I fished out a jar of an extremely strong-smelling salts. I handed them both back to him.

"Open the jar and wave it under her nose." Naruto did so and Sakura stirred, first coughing from the strong smell. Naruto put the lid back on and the jar beside him on the floor. Something caught his eye and he picked it up, examining it.

"What's this?" Sakura had sat up and turned white as she spotted what Naruto was holding up. Frantically she made a grab for it, missing by a long shot as Naruto moved away.

"Sakura, what's this?" Naruto tried to hold her at bay with one arm as he tried to open it with the other hand. Not a good move on his part. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him to his knees on the floor. She placed a foot on his back and made an attempt to grab the book back. Seeing his helpless position, Naruto made a last attempt to keep it away from her. He threw the book at me.

Sakura emitted a muffled squeak as I caught the book, turning an amazing shade of red. I examined the cover. It was pink, with red lettering outlined in white, and a cluster of cherry blossoms painted water-color style in the bottom right-hand corner. Turning it over, the book had the ever-familiar red circle and slash emblazoned on the back cover.

"Icha Icha Reverse! A story for Sakura." I raised an eyebrow at the young kunoichi, with an amused smirk that she couldn't see. She hung her head in embarrassment, holding her hand out tentatively.

"Can I please have that back, Kakashi-sensei?" She had apparently decided the same tactics would not work on me as had Naruto. I decided to tease her a bit.

"That depends. Do I get to read it when you're done?" Naruto was standing in the background, visibly confused. Sakura came another step towards the window, hand still outstretched.

"Please, Kakashi-sensei?" Her face was draining of color as she saw me playing with the pages, not quite looking at them.

"You didn't answer my question, Sakura-chan." I opened the book to the first page and laid it on the sill without looking at it. Sakura choked back a squeak and swallowed audibly.

"It depends on the subject material, Kakashi-sensei." I closed the book and tossed it at her. She caught it deftly, clutching it to her chest and staring at me in disbelief.

"How much longer are you planning on calling me that, Sakura-chan? I haven't been your sensei since you became a chuunin." Naruto and Sasuke hadn't called me that in years. She smiled weakly.

"Maybe forever, Kakashi-sensei."

"You make me feel older that I am." It was kind of hard to place, but there were other reasons I didn't want to be called her sensei, I just didn't quite know them. Naruto broke in.

"What did you want to talk to us about, Kakashi?" Naruto was holding his right wrist in his left hand and slowly trying to flex it. It actually looked as if Sakura might have broken it, from here at least. Sakura noticed and took hold of it, starting to heal and looking apologetic.

"Tsunade-sama's assigned us a mission." I looked at Sakura for a reaction, considering that Tsunade-sama herself had said that she was to have time to settle back in. Nothing. Naruto snorted.

"What's that got to do with me?" Naruto was now flexing his wrist freely and Sakura smacked him for fidgeting as she continued to fix the damage silently. I shrugged.

"Nothing. I'm not the one who asked you to show up, Naruto. But since you're here, why don't you go find Sasuke and bring him back so I can get this over with?" Naruto pouted and, getting a thumbs up from Sakura, he formed the seals and disappeared.

"Sakura-chan?" She had gone over to her closet and was taking clothes out, holding each article up to her body and then tossing it on the floor. She barely looked at me, cheeks still tinged red.

"Hmm?"

"You don't have a problem with this?" She shook her head as she tossed a red sweater onto the ground.

"Tsunade-shishou has her reasons." The pile was climbing quickly past her waist as a few select pieces were somehow making it to the bed. Among them being a pair of black denim shorts, a white long sleeved top and a red hooded short sleeve shirt with a zipper.

"What are you doing?" She still didn't look at me, tossing a black camisole on the bed.

"I haven't worn these clothes since I was 15, I'm seeing if any of them even fit anymore." I took a closer look and realized that she had grown. Her red sleeveless top was tight and showed her midriff, and her shorts were shorter and more well filled out than I seemed to remember. A mental image of her in the black camisole pushed its way into my mind and I shoved it out as quickly. In her absence, she had grown into a lovely young woman.

"How old are you now, Sakura-chan?" She looked at me quietly.

"I turn 21 in a week, Kakashi-sensei. Why?" Her cheeks flushed and she turned back away, picking up the clothes on the floor and dumping them in a box she had brought in a minute ago. While I hadn't been paying attention, a pair of pink pyjamas and a white short-sleeved nightshirt had been added to the clothes on the bed.

"Just finding it hard to believe that you used to be a scared little kunoichi who only had eyes for Sasuke, and now you're such a compelling young lady that Jiraiya is writing stories for you." I grinned. She had been following with a quiet look until that last comment, at which she promptly turned red and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I never asked him to write it!" It was fun to provoke her like this. She took the pajamas and nightshirt off of the bed and put them back in the closet, and the tiny black camisole as well. She scooped up the white and red shirts and black shorts and left the room. I looked around the room idly, wondering if I could get an actual look at the book Jiraiya had written her. At this point, my curiosity had been piqued by whatever could possibly embarrass the hot-tempered kunoichi so much.

"You're not going to find it just looking around like that. I put it away." Sakura was leaning on the door frame, one hand on her hip. She straightened up and crossed the room to the closet, raising her arms above her head and spinning around to look at her back. I couldn't see, but it seemed that she had a mirror there. She was wearing the shirts and shorts she had taken off of the bed, now testing her full range of motion.

"What's the mission we were assigned?" I turned to see Sasuke enjoying the view, which definitely wasn't bad. Sakura pulled on the legs of her shorts, looking as if she thought they were too short. She rummaged through her closet, pulling out something I couldn't identify clearly.

"We're going to be setting a trap for a rapist that's been on the loose in Hanagakure." The comment elicited a sharp intake of breath from Sakura as she looked at me in horror. Sasuke, however, looked outraged.

"What do you mean, we're setting a trap?!" Sasuke growled, while Sakura's worries were more frantic.

"Is it kunoichis being attacked? Is the Hanakage okay?!" She looked absolutely terrified for the friends she had undoubtedly made there.

"Relax, Sakura, that's why we're going to help, okay?" She covered her mouth in her hands and turned to face the other direction, shoulders shaking. I reached out to touch her on the shoulder, to offer some comfort, but Sasuke grabbed the collar of my vest and pulled me down face to face with him. He looked murderous.

"What do you mean, 'we're setting a trap', Kakashi?" I pulled out a kunai, placing it against his throat quicker than his eyes followed. I pushed him away.

"Don't lose your temper with me, Sasuke. This will be the last time I warn you." The tone of my voice was lethal. His temper had gotten us into trouble before, and I'd be damned if it was going to happen while it was Sakura's life on the line. I took the kunai away and turned back towards the window, Sasuke cautiously standing beside me.

Inside, Sakura was seated on the floor in front of the mirror, kunai in one hand, a large chunk of pink hair in the other and a mound of long pink hairs scattered around her.

"Sakura, what are you doing?!" Sasuke's voice startled her, causing her hand to slip and a long red gash to appear on her hand, blood slowly beading to the surface. She let go of the hair she was holding, letting it drop to the floor.

"Sasuke, I'll see you for the mission tomorrow. Until then, please leave." Her voice was cold and calm, and she was deliberately not looking at him. She put the kunai down in her lap and started to heal the cut.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean for you to hurt yourself. I guess I actually meant to ask why you were cutting your hair. It looks so nice like this." The suave bastard was trying to regain her good graces.

"It's fine, Sasuke, really. I'll see you tomorrow. Kakashi-sensei, could you come in here please?" Rage radiated from the young shinobi beside me as he formed his seals and disappeared. I climbed in the window and landed on the floor among the scattered pink hairs. Sakura handed me the kunai and turned her back to me.

"Sasuke made me mess it up, and now I can't see to fix it. Can you please even it out?" I took the kunai and carefully trimmed her hair to even out at the shortest point, where you could see blood droplets clinging to the strands. Her hair was amazingly soft as I shook it out, provoking more naughty imagery to invade my mind. I pushed the thoughts out of mind. Although there might be nothing wrong with it, it was unsettling to thing of a woman fourteen years my junior like that. Sakura examined her hair in the mirror, shaking out the loose strands and nodded her satisfaction. It was all even, reaching to brush the underside of her shoulder blades, much like when she was still a genin.

She quickly left the room and returned with a broom and dustpan. I stepped out of the way, hopping back out of the window and brushing some stray pink hairs off of me. It was full blown night out, and only now did I realize she had had the lights on for a while now.

"Sakura-chan." She looked up at me from sweeping the floor.

"We leave at dawn. Don't be late." I formed the seals to go and get some sleep, hopefully devoid of any inappropriate thoughts provoked by this rather revealing day.


	6. 05

-5-

I shut the window and closed the drapes, taking a look around the room and deciding that the mess could stay until whenever we returned. I grabbed the only nightshirt that still fit me and headed for the bathroom, relishing the thought of my first hot shower in a very long time. I grabbed a towel and shut the bathroom door behind me, stripping off the clothes I would have to resort to until I had a chance to shop for something easier to wear. I placed them gently folded on the bathroom counter, turning on the shower and stepping into the hot water. I washed up, breathing in the sweet smell of of the minty body wash and shampoo I hadn't used in so long and smiling at the familiarity. It was definitely good to be home.

I lingered in the hot water, letting it melt away the years of knots and bruises, old sprains that never healed properly and dirt ground into the skin, all resulting from my nearly obsessive training. As I relaxed, leaning so my forehead rested against the wall, the water beating off of my back, my thoughts found themselves wandering to the little pink book. I wondered if Kakashi had actually managed to get a look at any of the pictures while he was teasing me with it, but decided that he probably hadn't. He had more respect for a girl's privacy than that. I think.

I shut the water off as it started turning cooler, stepping out onto the shower mat and wrapping myself in the fluffy pink towel I had grabbed and set aside before that shower. I toweled off as thoroughly as I could, getting dressed in my nightshirt and hanging the towel to dry, all the while debating whether it would or wouldn't be a good idea to read a bit before bed. The cover page had been drawn beautifully, but hinted at a very naughty story unfolding on later pages. My mind struggled to decide whether I would be able to deal with that while on a mission with two of the featured characters as I made my way back to my room and crawled into bed.

Laying on my stomach with my chin on my hands, I mentally shook my head. While I might be able to live with the mental imagery, it would likely lead to nosebleeds, awkward situations and mind wandering. On a mission, that wouldn't be a good thing, and I couldn't really risk it. Sighing, I shut the light, laying my head on the pillow with one arm underneath of it and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up, it was still dark out. I hadn't woken up for any particular reason other than that my body was fully rested. Still slightly drowsy, I peered at my old pink alarm clock and sigh heavily. It wasn't even four in the morning and my body was already itching to get up and about for the day. I lifted my arms above my head and stretched as far as I could, cracking my back gently in the process. I sat up in bed and kicked the blankets off of my feet, exposing bare legs to the chill air. I shivered, absently wondering why it was so cold, when I happened to notice a stream of moonlight streaking across the floor at the end of my bed. Drawing the blankets back up over my legs protectively, my eyes followed the white ribbon of light back to its source. The curtain was pulled open on the side farthest from me and fluttering slowly.

I got up off of the bed and walked around to confirm what common sense already told me. I had left the window open, and almost a full foot open no less. Mentally I smacked myself for being so careless not only with my safety , but with my health. Even to a medic-nin, there was no cure for the common cold. I closed the window and curtain, deciding quickly that a warm bath would help fight the chills I felt.

As I gathered my clothes, even going so far as to hunt for the forehead protector I hadn't worn in six years, my thoughts drifted once again to the pink novel I had hidden from Kakashi-sensei. I reached under my pillow and pulled it out, reasoning that If I didn't read at least a little bit, my mind would be constantly wandering to it for the duration of the mission. I blushed slightly and bright it with me to the bathroom, opening it up to the first page as the bath filled with hot water and green minty bubbles.

* * *

No wonder Jiraiya had looked so proud of himself.

Even after only reading a single chapter, it was apparent that as unbelievable as the actual story was, it was completely believable. I pinched my nose to quell the small trickle of blood as I toweled off, critically examining the story I had just started.

It was very artfully drawn, quite beautiful actually... in an extremely explicit way. Even the story in between the actual smut was drawn with an inherent sex appeal, with that certain tension in the scene that the honored sannin had a particular talent for.

I felt a blush creep up over my face as the contents of the story popped to the forefront of my mind. Naruto and Sasuke appeared to be nothing more than very nicely drawn eye candy, but Kakashi-sensei... Well, improbable as it might be to actually happen, there was nothing wrong with a girl my age fantasizing a bit. Former sensei or not.

I shook my head to clear the inappropriate thoughts from it, hurriedly getting dressed. I had decided last night that the shorts I had found were a bit too short, so I had dug out a pair of black mesh half-leggings, long enough to cover the skin in between my shorts and kneepads so that I didn't feel so exposed. I hung up the towel to dry again, strolling back to my room to get my stuff ready for the mission. I stopped short when I stepped inside the door, immediately aware that something was off.

A white streak of light traced across the ground, positioned close to but not exactly, where it had been three quarters of an hour ago. I shivered, not from the cold. Someone was doing this on purpose, playing a game with me. A low growl escaped my throat as I darted over to the window, shutting it quietly along with the curtain. I felt the skin prickle on the back of my neck and my hand raised up immediately to it without thought. I let out a slow breath. Someone was staring at me with genjutsu eyes. I could feel it.

I swallowed and turned slowly, cursing the fact that I hadn't a kunai or other weapon in reach. I glanced around the room, cautiously noting that there wasn't anyone here but me. No chakra signature, no nothing, but still the prickle continued. A breeze blew across my shoulders through my hair and I jumped in fright, whirling to face the window again. It was wide open, curtain and all. Swallowing hard, I grabbed my pack and medic bag, not turning away from the open window as I properly outfitted myself for a possibly difficult mission ahead. I finished quickly and shut the window, not bothering with the curtain. I backed away out of the room, relieved when the prickling stopped. I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding and bolted for the front door, still not quite feeling safe.

I slipped on my sandals and wrenched open the door, stopping short. A beautiful blond woman with wide open frost-blue eyes and an open medic's vest on had her arm up in an odd gesture, most likely being caught as she was about to knock on the door.

"Ino-chan." I stared perplexedly at the buxon woman, wondering exactly how she knew I was in town yet, forget what she was doing here at this hour. The pretty girl leaped forward and threw her arms around my neck, screeching in my ear joyously.

"Sakura-chan!" I hugged her back, sighing softly at how much she had developed compared to me. We used to be just about the same size. I smiled as she let go of me, standing straight up and beaming.

"You okay, Forehead? We missed you, all of us." I nodded as my hand made its way to the back of my neck, the prickling starting again. I grabbed Ino's upper arm gently and guided her back up the walk and out to the sidewalk.

"I'm fine, Ino-pig. What are you here to see me so early for?" I tried to make my voice sound cheery as I darted a glance back at my house, hoping to see to catch the voyeur who was no doubt enjoying freaking me out.

"Tsunade-hime sent me home early from my shift to give this to you! Don't get me wrong though, I am glad to see you, Sakura... What's wrong?" Ino had stopped walking, holding me still and looking concerned. She held out a purple scroll to me, holding her other hand to my forehead. I took the scroll and brushed her hand away.

"I'm fine, Ino. Just some nightmares freaked me out last night, that's all." I lied, but it was better than her thinking I was crazy. If I told her I could feel someone staring at me, she'd take me straight to Tsunade-shishou to be examined. I smiled a fake little smile and started walking again.

"Maybe you really do need some time to settle back in, Forehead. Don't push yourself to hard on this mission, and I'll see you when you get back. Later." I dug my nails into my neck as the prickling got even more irritating. Halfheartedly I waved at Ino's back as she made her way down the street in the other direction, most likely to go home and to bed. I took off quickly in the direction of the town gate to wait for my teammates, as the sun was starting to peek up over the horizon.

* * *

I paced in front of the gate, waiting impatiently for Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei as I read and re-read the scroll Tsunade-shishou had sent me and tried desperately to ignore the prickling on my neck and the sting of the scratches over top of it.

"Application for private jounin examination..." Tsunade-shishou had done all the work, leaving only two spaces blank on the scroll. One for the name of my examiner, and one for the date of my exam. There was a little note tucked into the scroll, explaining things.

"I'll let you pick your own examiner. Choose wisely. The exam will take place a day after you return from the Flower country." I thought about it for a few minutes. I knew that the whole point of the examiner was to demonstrate skill in the heat of battle, kind of like a training battle, but you play for keeps. I thought about it for a few minutes. I'd love to have a go with Kakashi-sensei, if only to see how much I had improved... but actually passing the exam might require me to win, which wasn't likely to happen. Naruto wouldn't be a bad choice... I just didn't want to have to face him if he lost control of the Kyuubi. That really only left Sasuke. It would be an unsettling fight, challenging to say the least. His sharingan would cause me constant discomfort as long as he used it. On the other hand, beating the tar out of the heartbreaking bastard would be a fun release of pent-up aggravation.

I pulled out a brush and small waterproof pot of ink from my bag, carefully scripting on the scroll's blank bottom, Uchiha Sasuke. I blew on the ink to dry it, rolling the scroll back up and placing a seal on it so that the information inside would remain for Tsunade-shishou's eyes only. I approached the post where Izumo and Kotetsu were always stationed and dropped the scroll in front of them without ceremony.

"That's for Tsunade-shishou. She'll know who it's from." They acknowledged me with a tired grunt as I walked away, putting the brush and ink away. I resumed pacing in front of the gate, irritated that both Kakashi and Sasuke were late. Dawn had come and gone, the sun now drifting lazily across a cloud-spotted sky. The prickling had stopped a short while after I began pacing the gate the first time, but now I was just short of tearing my hair in annoyance at the boys' tardiness and to make it worse, I was hungry.

Stomach grumbling, I started pacing a bit faster, not exactly paying attention to where I was going. So of course, it wasn't exactly a surprise when I ran into someone, recoiling and falling backwards onto my derrière. I glanced up to yell at whoever to watch where they were going, but was stopped.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan."


	7. 06

-6-

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." I glared up at the man from my seat on the ground and crossed my arms across my chest as I stood.

"You're late." I couldn't say anything else to convey my anger to the white-haired shinobi lazily smiling back at me. He scratched the back of his neck as his face took on the expression it always had when he made up his excuses.

"Well, see, this little kid challenged me to a short sparring match this morning while I was on my way here. I just couldn't refuse." I continued to glare at him, but felt my anger ebb a bit and couldn't bring myself to yell at him, despite the fact that his excuse was dumber than most. Well, it would be.

"What's wrong?" I cringed at my own lack of tact. He was carrying his weight in a peculiar manner, and I could tell right away that he was injured in some way. He just shifted his weight and pulled out a copy of Icha Icha Tactics. My annoyance rose back to the surface as I grabbed the older shinobi's bare arm, streaming chakra from my fingertips through it and into his body to diagnose what was actually wrong. Not a second later a kunai was pressed against my wrist, threatening to puncture the vein. I didn't let up, already finding a sprained shoulder, and sure I was going to find a leg injury.

"Sakura-chan..." The tone wasn't exactly friendly.

"Cut if you want to, it won't stop me." I pushed up his shirt sleeve with my free hand, reaching under the baggy garment to heal his shoulder. The kunai bit in dangerously. I moved my arm quickly, cutting the heel of my hand on purpose and holding it up. I felt him stiffen up in surprise at my action. I continued to heal him as he watched, my hand pressed to my shorts to quickly stop the bleeding. I cast a glance at him before I dropped to a kneel to start on his knee, which thankfully was only sprained.

"Why you don't use your entire hand to heal, Sakura-chan?" He was watching intently as I threaded chakra through the muscles surrounding his knee to alleviate the pain. I shrugged at his observation, examining my hands, imagining the scars that I knew were under the white fingerless gloves emblazoned with the Konoha leaf.

"I can't. I had a bit of an accident a couple of years ago, which damaged the chakra outlets on my palms irreversibly." I flexed my hands, placing them on my thighs and pushing myself to a stand. I brushed my palms over my shins and kneepads, ridding them from the dirt I had been kneeling in. I turned my gaze to the dismissive shinobi's face to find him watching me over the edge of his little green book.

"Tsunade-sama won't like that. She was planning on recruiting you back to the hospital full-time." I snorted with laughter, provoking an expression of surprise to invade his lone uncovered eye.

"Tough shit, I guess. I'm not a specialized medic-nin anyway. Not to mention that I wouldn't be cut out for wandering around a stuffy hospital all day." I shrugged, thinking back a few years, when I would have gladly stayed within the safety of the village, using my talents to help the numerous wounded. I shook my head. I wasn't that girl anymore, content to let everyone else be the strongest, the best. A smile crept over my face.

"Besides, it was so totally worth it." I thought of the jutsu I had created from that accident, earning another big smile, interrupted by the dark haired jounin that had materialized at my side, very obviously wounded. The sight elicited my irritated glare to dart to Kakashi, who was pointedly not looking at our injured teammate, revealing his guilt.

"A little kid, huh?" I could almost feel the smirk creeping across his face as I moved to Sasuke's side, not in as much of a hurry as I would be normally, because I knew that Sasuke had challenged Kakashi, and gotten in over his head. He was kneeling on the ground, eyes angrily fixed on our former sensei. I huffed, even angrier now that I knew why they were late. I rested my fingertips on the dark-haired man's neck, extending out my chakra to try and pick up the problems, of which there were no doubt numerous. Upon finding that he had several broken ribs and a fractured ankle along with a multitude of bruises and lacerations, I sighed and knelt down to eye-level with him.

"Take off your vest, please." His face took on a dull red cast which I ignored as I took his vest from him and set about taking off his sandal. His ankle was badly swollen and a nasty shade of purple. I let out an exasperated breath as I fixed the bone and started to reduce the swelling and bleeding underneath the skin. I used one hand to pull my hair over my shoulder to one side so that I could see better. My face started to heat as my anger momentarily resurfaced.

"I honestly don't believe you two. Sparring just before a mission so that I have to heal you before we've even encountered any problems, on top of being hours late!" I finished his ankle and replaced his sandal, moving closer and reaching under his navy blue sweater to get to his ribs. He recoiled at my touch, brightening to an unprecedented shade of red. He held my wrist and I was about ready to hit him.

"Let me go and sit still, or I'll cart you to the damn hospital and request a replacement for the mission from Tsunade-shishou." My voice came out in little more than an angry hiss, and whether he actually heard me or not, the point got across. He relaxed and sat back, not looking me in the face as I leaned forward and started mending his ribs. I was finished vocalizing my vexation because it was currently apparent that I would not be receiving an apology for being made to wait. I finished healing Sasuke's wounds and stood up, once again brushing the dirt from my clothes. Inwardly I felt the chakra drain healing those small injuries had placed upon me. I stretched, working out a small kink in my shoulder and shifted my bag.

"Sakura?" I lifted my eyes to see Sasuke with his hand out, looking apologetic. I wasn't falling for that one a second time, and crossed my arms under my breasts.

"Let's go, if you're done." Kakashi had walked right past us and out the gate, carelessly ruffling my hair as he did so. I turned and followed him, arms falling to my side as I tried to match his gait. Sasuke caught up quickly and walked beside me, on the opposite side as Kakashi.

"You can't ignore me, Sakura." I didn't bother looking at him, using both hands to push my hair behind my ears.

"Sasuke, I don't really think you have any idea what a bad mood I'm in this morning." I leaped up into the trees, closely followed by Sasuke and Kakashi, and started jumping from tree to tree, taking out my frustration in speed.

"Sakura-chan, slow down." I pounded my feet off of the branches, feeling gratified at the release.

"Sakura!" I turned my head to glance back at them witheringly, not missing so much as a step.

"You were late, both of you. If you were on time, not only would I not be mad, we wouldn't be rushing." That was the end of that conversation, because he knew I was right, and Kakashi hadn't even tried to stop me.

It continued until just after dark, when we settled into an isolated clearing, almost half of the way to Hanagakure. By now my temper had subsided, and I volunteered to cook dinner, much to the horrified surprise of my comrades. My cooking hadn't been much to look forward to when I was a genin, and though it didn't really seem like they expected any better from me, they didn't object to me cooking for them. Once it was served, I watched as they each took a bite holding their breath. I rolled my eyes and ate normally, sitting a ways away from the pair.

"Sakura-chan, when did you learn to cook?" Kakashi was regarding me with suspicion as I scarfed down my portion. I shrugged, pulling a novel out of my bag.

"I'm not sure, sometime in the last six years probably." I opened the book while the two of them ate quietly, still most likely not wanting to set me off. Silently, with the book in my lap, I watched them eat. While Sasuke ravaged his bowl of food, Kakashi ate much more neatly, but even so still more quickly. I smiled, realizing that I no longer needed to try to see his face while he ate, because I most likely had seen as close to the real thing as I ever would. That is, If Jiraiya told the truth.

I backed up even farther from the two, snuggling my back into a large tree and relaxing. I stared up at the moon overhead, smiling and enjoying the soft light. It was going to be a beautiful night.


	8. 07

-7-

I had taken watch tonight. The oddities of the day were still processing in my mind, and I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. I glanced down at the pink haired kunoichi curled up on her bedroll, having kicked off the top layer and now tossing and turning haphazardly every few minutes. It was apparent from her actions and her racing heartbeat that I could even hear from here that she wasn't resting well and was probably lapsing between nightmares.

I thought back upon the day, reflecting specifically on her behavior, because Sasuke's was not anything out of the ordinary. She had been incredibly agitated during the day, quick to anger and hard to calm. I hadn't seen enough of her to tell for sure yet, but i suspected that it was something wrong rather than her normal behavior. She had definitely gotten bolder in six years, even crossing me when it was apparent I hadn't wanted to be touched, going so far as to call my bluff to prove that she was going to do exactly what Tsunade had intended, act as team medic. It almost made me feel guilty that I tested her like that.

My attention turned back to her in the present. She had flipped back onto her back again, one knee bent up with her foot nestled in the bunched up blankets, her left arm thrown across her chest and her right curled under her head, her shirt inched up under her breasts. White bandages protruded from under her shirt, wrapped down to cover up to the bottom of her ribcage, leaving her unmarred porcelain stomach bare, slick with sweat even in the chill night air. I averted my eyes from the sight, futilely trying to avert my mind as well. However, the thought of her doing something as old-fashioned as binding her chest only lead to thoughts of her unbound which, consequently, led to thoughts involving running my hands gently across her creamy white skin. I mentally smacked myself and attempted to expel the dangerous train of thought and, finding that I couldn't, I decided to go down there and wake her up from her nightmares.

I put away the Icha Icha novel that lay ignored in my lap, silently blaming it for the thoughts I was trying not to have about the sultry kunoichi now laying partially on her stomach, her back exposed right down to the light-colored panties just showing above the waistband of her black shorts. I swallowed audibly, shoving aside the thoughts that were getting increasingly explicit and invasive as I watched her toss about, whispering under her breath amidst broken whimpers.

I hopped down from the branch I had been sitting lazily upon and silently crossed the clearing, careful not to wake Sasuke, who was lying flush with said tree. Sakura had made damn sure that their bedrolls were as far apart as humanly possible, barring one of them leaving the clearing itself, much to the young Uchiha's very vocal dismay.

I gently shook her shoulder, jumping back out of arms' reach as she bolted upright, striking out with a kunai that she had slept with in her hand. Upon a bit of closer and completely involuntary inspection, the collar of her red shirt was soaked on perspiration, loose tendrils of matted wet hair stuck to her sweat-dampened cheeks, forehead and neck. Cheeks flushed and breathing irregularly, she put away the kunai when she realized who had woken her.

"You want me to take watch now?" Her voice shook even as her breathing slowed to normal. She adjusted her clothes, brushing her tangled hair away from her neck and face. I shook my head.

"You looked like you were having nightmares. You wouldn't stay still and were mumbling while you slept." She leaned forward and propped her head in her hands, hiding her face, with her elbows on her knees. I smelled the sweet fresh scent of mint as she shook her head, her hair waving back and forth across her shoulders. I stepped away from her, unwilling to allow new thoughts to force their way forward.

"I'll be fine. I guess dinner just isn't sitting properly." There was a restrained quality to her voice that screamed to me that she was lying, but I didn't press it. I backed up even farther from her as she stood, peeling her shirt away from her stomach. She turned and stepped gingerly past the traps we had set up and I darted forward, catching her hand and pulling her back before she could inadvertently set anything off.

"Where do you think you're going?" I quickly realized what I had done and let go of her. She just looked at me, biting her knuckle.

"I'm going to go wash up before HE wakes up." We had been following a large creek for the better part of the previous day and it wasn't that far from camp. I tried to keep my outward reaction nonexistent as my mind fell irretrievably into the gutter.

"If he does wake up, could you keep him here? He shouldn't, but..." She trailed off, still biting her knuckle. She was staring at the ground, hugging her waist with her free arm. In the space of about ten seconds she had reverted from the tough-as-nails young woman she had become to the same insecure young kunoichi she used to be so long ago, all at her mention of Sasuke. I nodded, pondering why he could provoke such a drastic reaction in her. Seeming satisfied, she smiled gratefully at me and resumed picking past the traps, her bag over her shoulder. I absently tried to remember when she picked it up, without success. I glanced at Sasuke's sleeping form, torn between heeding her request and staying or finishing what my mind had started and sneaking a peek.

Deciding that Sasuke was fast asleep, my decision was made for me as I suppressed my chakra, following silently a ways behind her to the edge of the slow-running creek. I watched silently as she tested the water and, apparently deciding it wasn't that cold, unhesitatingly unzipped her outer shirt, sliding it off her arms and placing it on a large flat rock, folded neatly. Her white undershirt followed, along with her shorts, revealing a flower print on her white panties. I drew an abbreviated breath as she unbound the bandages wrapped around her chest, revealing a large, ornately drawn black butterfly tattooed directly between the bottom of her shoulder blades, centered over her spine. It would've been just larger than my hand, and incredibly detailed. I imagined tracing my fingers along the intricate swirls and whorls withing the wings and then along the curvature of her spine when I remembered Jiraiya mentioning spying on Tsunade in the bath once, and the resulting injuries. Fearing similar repercussions, I stole away back to camp with a fresh nosebleed and a new treasury of inappropriate mental images as a trophy.

Back at camp, Sasuke had indeed not woken up yet. I removed my mask and cleaned up my nosebleed quickly, replacing it and pulling out my copy of Icha Icha Tactics, even though it would likely remain largely ignored as it had all night. In any case, it wouldn't look very good when she got back if I wasn't acting normally, even if I wasn't actually reading.

It wasn't very long before Sasuke started to stir, waking from his uncharacteristically deep sleep. He sat up drowsily, running a hand through his tousled black hair and yawning. It wasn't until he got up and started out of the clearing that I moved, darting in front of him and blocking his path. His eyes narrowed in half-asleep surprise.

"Sorry, but you're staying here until Sakura gets back." His drowsiness vanished as he turned to look at his teammate's bedroll, in disarray and also very empty.

"Where'd she go?" I didn't even have time to answer as she passed beside me and pushed him out of the way on her way back to her own side of camp.

"I'm back, you can go now." She waved at him, nothing but disinterest in her voice. He just shrugged, passing beside me as she had done and sidling past the traps. Once he was out of sight, I went back to my seat, picking up the novel I had dropped there. I snuck a glance at Sakura over the book, thankful that I didn't get any more of an eyeful than I did. She was sitting amidst the rumpled blankets, staring at me with an indescribable look on her face. I'd peg it as somewhere in between curiosity and caution.

"Kakashi?" I didn't look back up, noting that she hadn't called me sensei and smiling.

"Hmm?" I turned a page, using the second to sneak a glance back at her. She was still staring at me with intense curiosity.

"Never mind, It's nothing." She rested her chin in her hand, cheeks flushed as she shifted her gaze. Now I was kind of curious at what she wanted to ask.

"What is it?" She shook her head.

"Nothing, really." She stood up and started packing her bedroll back up, stuffing it all, folded, into her bag and fishing out a small pink hairbrush. She watched me as she untangled her wet hair and I flipped pages intermittently for show, still unable to concentrate outright on it.

Once she was done and had replaced her forehead protector, she repacked her bag and stood, walking over and not quite kneeling eye-level with me.

"Yes?" I couldn't look directly at her in this close proximity, and so I just didn't shift my gaze from my book as I willed her to walk away.

"Don't tell anyone." She stood back up and turned away from me as I felt my skin take on a heated crimson color.

"About what?" She glanced at me over her shoulder.

"The butterfly. Don't tell anyone." I breathed in sharply, preparing to dodge an angry fist. It never came and instead she sat back down on the other side of the clearing against a tree, a thoughtful expression on her face. Inwardly, I questioned her calmness but was stopped from saying anything by Sasuke's untimely return.

The hours we remained encamped passed in relative silence, both Sakura and I unwilling to talk when Sasuke initiated conversation. When we finally set back out, Sakura traveled with the same fervor as the previous day, and there wasn't any arguing with her.


	9. 08

-8-

I never wondered why he peeked. In fact, had our roles been reversed I likely would have done the exact same thing, so I couldn't really get mad at him, either. It wasn't even that I wanted to get mad, a large part of me was actually flattered by the admittedly handsome man's attention. It just made me wonder if spending too much time away, too much time with Jiraiya... It made me wonder if I had lost my sense of feminine modesty, and that made me wonder what, if anything. else I might have lost.

I cast a glance across the fire at Kakashi. He was still trying to look like he was reading Icha Icha, even going so far as to turn the pages, but his lone uncovered eye was fixed in place, someplace just above the pages. He was like that this morning before we had packed up, too. Now the three of us had set up a temporary encampment, only meant for a few hours while we waited for the messenger the Hanakage was reportedly sending.

We wouldn't be waiting for too much longer. The moon was high and I could feel the chakra of a ninja openly approaching the camp. She was still a good distance away, but It wouldn't be long anyway. I stood up and walked over to where Sasuke had been napping with his arm thrown over his eyes. Unwilling to get to close, I nudged him with my foot.

"Wake up, we'll be going soon." Kakashi had already doused the fire and scattered the ashes, throwing the clearing into darkness, the scarce highlights only shown by the waxing moon. Sasuke stood up and I turned, preparing to walk away, but his arms found their way around me, his face buried in my hair. Shocked at his gall, I broke his grip and darted to the other end of the clearing, shuddering at the feeling of his breath on my neck. Biting my anger back, my voice caught in my throat as I tried to vocalize it.

"Sasuke, what the hell would possess you to do that?!" I turned to find him right there, his face not more than a couple inches from mine. I took a step back in surprise, my back pressing against the rough bark of a large tree. The look on his face was making me uneasy, I had never seen that look directed at me before. Other women, plenty of times, but never me.

"This isn't funny Sasuke, stop it!" My cheeks were flushing and my heart was racing, but it wasn't embarrassment or lust. It was something far baser than that. I didn't want to hit him, because I would have to repair the damage later. My hesitation only prompted him to take a step closer to me, placing a hand on either side of my waist against the tree. I shrunk back, my hands balling up into fists as he brought his face down close to mine.

"Get away from me!" I thrust my fist up and past his face, shattering his nose. As he staggered back, I ran behind the tree to collect myself. I only realized then that I had bitten a chunk out of my lip, and it was gushing blood against my tongue, that sickeningly salty, coppery tasting liquid was filling my mouth, causing me to feel sick. I spat it out as best as i could, and tried to heal it so it would stop bleeding. Only bringing my fingers to my face allowed me to see the blood under my nails too. I had clawed through the skin of my palms. I healed my lip and put my hand to my chest, willing my heart to slow back to a normal rate, my face to stop flushing.

I hadn't felt this way in a long time. Not since Itachi. Sasuke was the first person to provoke true fear in me in a very long time. His attitude and demeanor was that of a predator stalking its prey. Spending so long as the hunter, my rage at the situation couldn't overcome the raw fear at suddenly finding myself the hunted.

"Sakura-chan?" I was startled out of the crashing tide of thoughts that I was struggling to cope with. I wiped my bloody hands on my shorts and looked up.

"I'm okay, if you were going to ask." The silver-haired jounin was eying me, not critically, as he had taken to doing, but in what appeared to be concern. I tried to relax my rigid stance and healed the cuts on my hands without bothering to looking at them.

"Hmm. Is that so?" The detached response threw me off, as I hadn't expected a response at all. He turned and walked back into the clearing, while I followed a bit behind.

"Ah..." I did a double-take when the first thing I saw besides the back of Kakashi's vest was Sasuke face-down in the dirt. I would have asked questions, but the second thing I saw captured my attention.

The pretty black-haired kunoichi was bent over Sasuke's prone form, one hand under the collar of his vest, no doubt searching for a pulse. She stood and turned to us, nodding a silent greeting. Her gaze narrowed as it targeted Kakashi. She sighed, settling her large brown eyes on me and dusting off the black yukata she wore haphazardly, tied with a white beaded cord.

"Male shinobi aren't permitted within the boundaries of the village, Sakura-san. You know that." I nodded as Kakashi looked back at me with an eyebrow raised. I shrugged.

"I figured we'd just camp out anyway. No big deal, really." The kunoichi glared at me darkly, her expression matching the rest of her.

"Kimiko-sama has generously granted you sleeping quarters in her residence, Sakura-san." I looked elsewhere, hiding my exasperation.

"I'm not going anywhere my teammates can't go, you know me better than that." She sighed in disgust.

"This is why we requested a team of kunoichi. Men are so troublesome." I crossed my arms across my chest. Holding men in high regard here wasn't going to help me.

"You know, you're the only one who needs to know." Kakashi cut in, his voice utterly dispassionate. She huffed loudly.

"You know, this one's pretty androgynous looking, we could probably make him look like a very pretty girl..." I giggled at the mental image of Sasuke in make-up and heels while she continued.

"You, on the other hand, there's just no way." Her tone was smug, eyes closed and both hands on her hips as she spoke, and so she missed what I caught. When she looked back up, she faltered, taking a step back.

Where Kakashi had been standing was a medium-height, slender young woman in a tight, dark muscle-shirt and baggy dark sweatpants. Silvery-white hair hung with a soft wave to it, right down to her shoulder blades, and she smirked slightly, one eyebrow raised at the sputtering kunoichi staring at her. Both dark eyes were uncovered, and the requisite mask was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah... well, I guess that works, If you can keep it up. Nobody in the village must see you as a guy, got it?" I smiled in pride. If I could sleep in henge, I knew Kakashi could do it, and would, if only for the sake of the mission. It did surprise me however, that Kakashi's version of the sexy jutsu was so... well, unsexy. He made a very pretty girl, and I appreciated the fact that he liked a more slender, less well-endowed woman, but nonetheless I was surprised. I expected something straight out of Icha Icha. I tore my eyes away before she could catch me staring and walked over to Sasuke quietly and with extreme caution.

"So, what did you do, so that I can wake him up and we can go?" I knelt down just within arms' reach so that I could do what I had to and make a hasty retreat. I didn't want a repeat of earlier events.

"It's a sedative powder, just slap him. Not like he doesn't deserve it." Kakashi's voice was of a timbre pretty close to mine, with a low husky undertone to it which made my spine tingle. I blushed slightly, biting my lip at the effect his voice had on me as a girl, and desperately ignoring it. I took the jar of smelling salts out of my medic pack, flipping Sasuke on his back at the same time so that I could bring him round. As much as it might make me feel better to slap him, I again, didn't want to have to touch him to heal it. Once he started to stir, I lidded the jar and stashed it, backing up quickly.

"Wow, Sakura-san. You act like you're afraid of the little guy." I wasn't in the mood to let her provoke me as she had in the past, and didn't answer. Not receiving a response, she didn't bother pursuing the subject. I watched Sasuke sit up groggily, a hand to his forehead. Confusion crossed his features as he realized he was surrounded on three sides by deadly-looking kunoichi, only one of which he recognized.

"Sakura, what's going on?" I opened my mouth to say something, but found I couldn't speak. Turning, I crossed my arms across my stomach, suddenly feeling a bit sick. I heard him stand and take a step toward me, but stopped mid step. I took a look to see Kakashi, now much shorter than the dark-haired man, had grabbed his wrist and blocked him, a kunai pressed dangerously close to Sasuke's balls with her free hand. Sasuke was looking at her in nothing less than terror, and it gave me a small sense of comfort to see him like that.

"What did I tell you would happen If you so much as approached her again on this mission, Sasuke?" His eyes widened and mouth fell open as he scrambled to get away from our former sensei.

"What the hell, Kakashi?!" He had an absolutely disgusted look on his face that was amusing in light of the situation.

"Male shinobi aren't permitted within the village limits. Oh, and forgive me, my name is Masumi." She nodded courteously at Sasuke, even as she proceeded to look him up and down. A small smile flickered across her lips as she licked them. I groaned inwardly at the obviousness of the kunoichi's thought pattern. Sasuke's obliviousness was only accentuated by the fact that he was gawking like a stoned retard at Kakashi, who wasn't liking the attention.

"You've seen the sexy jutsu, Sasuke. Naruto uses it on you all the time. Hurry up and do your own version so we can get the hell out of here." The impatient shinobi's voice was laced with displeasure at being stared at, and she shoved her hands in her pockets. It was then that I noticed she was missing not only her jounin vest, but her gloves too. Sasuke shuddered but seeing no way out of appearing as a girl, he performed the seals and transformed.

Sasuke's jutsu had far more shape to it than Kakashi's, shorter and more petite overall though. His hair fell in a long black sheet past well-rounded hips, and his face had feminized quite a bit. He crossed his arms under nicely shaped breasts and scowled at us. He had reverted to his old genin uniform of a blue shirt over white shorts, with the Uchiha fan emblazoned on the back. Once again Kakashi was taller and far more threatening looking, but the way he way now, even I looked scarier.

Satisfied, Masumi turned and walked out of the clearing, beckoning silently for us to follow. Sasuke followed first,not happy about the whole situation, and I waited for Kakashi to join them before following a ways behind myself. We walked silently for what seemed like forever, with me contemplating my most recent thoughts and realizations.

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Kakashi had lagged behind the other two and was now keeping pace with me, hands still in her pockets. I couldn't quite shake the oddness of looking at his face and making eye-contact without having to lift my gaze at all, him being almost exactly my height now. I bit my lip gently and waved dismissively at the question.

"I already told you, I'm fine." That might not have been quite true, but eventually I'd deal with it on my own. I looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"I'm a big girl now, Kakashi-sensei." She looked at me skeptically, and I was amazed at how much of an open book she was without that damned mask and forehead protector on. I bit my lip gently and smiled at her, attempting to look perfectly fine. She didn't look at all convinced and I sighed, shrugging my shoulders.

"I understand that you're fully able to take care of yourself. That being said, you were put into a difficult situation which will likely be repeated in the future. It won't as long as I'm around to keep an eye on him, but I can't be around all the time." I blushed slightly, realizing what she was trying to say. In her own roundabout way, she was saying that I needed to be able to deal with him, because he was going to persist with his actions, consequences be damned. I shivered as I felt a gentle worm it's way up my spine. I smiled, running my hands through my hair and pulling out my Konoha headband. He was attempting to relax me using his sharingan.

"I know what you're trying to do, and while it won't work, thanks for trying. I appreciate it." I smiled at him through a curtain of loose pink hair. It wasn't visible, but I could still feel his sharingan. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation, hell Itachi's had been downright painful. She raised her eyebrows in surprise and the tingling stopped.

"Thank you." I could see Sasuke walking up ahead, heading into the village. I quickened my pace and actively started to catch up. Beside me, Kakashi had done the same, taking a second to reach up and ruffle my hair. I smiled at the familiarity, gently punching her arm in mock annoyance. Anything that was wrong a few minutes ago seemed not so bad now.

"We're here. We were expecting to be sent a team of kunoichi, so there's only one room. Kimiko-sama will see you in the morning to explain your mission in detail. Neither of you two are to leave the room until Kimiko-sama gives the okay." She openly glared at Kakashi and Sasuke as she lead us into a modestly sized house, stopping before a door at the back of the building on the first floor. She opened the door to let us into the relatively large room, three single beds lined up from the door to the window on the other side. Once we were in, she closed the door and left us to ourselves.

I passed Sasuke quickly, hopping over the two closest beds to flop down on the one under the window, glad for a soft bed to sleep in. In an uncharacteristic show of protectiveness, Kakashi claimed the bed not two feet from me, preventing Sasuke from doing so, and eliciting a look of unbridled rage from him as he claimed the last bed.

I giggled and pulled out the novel I had brought with me, intent on finishing a chapter before I went to sleep, when I noticed two sets of intense dark eyes focused on me, one in approving interest, the other not so much. I didn't open the little pink book just yet, instead propping myself up on my elbows and looking back at them in amusement.

"Why am I being stared at? I'd like to read in peace before bed." Kakashi's cheeks were pink as a knowing smile spread across his lips, and Sasuke flipped onto his side on the bed, his back turned to us. I giggled and blushed at how little the silver-haired girl actually knew as I opened my book and prepared to delve into a quick and dirty little fantasy.


	10. 09

**Minor lime here in beginning of chapter. You've been warned**.

-9-

His kisses were insistent and demanding, and I complied eagerly, my nails gently tracing up under his black muscle shirt along his rigid stomach, which provoked a primal growl to escape his throat. I could feel his pulse speed up as he nipped my lower lip and curled a handful of my hair around long, lean fingers, gently pulling my head back to expose my throat to him. A soft moan involuntarily escaped my lips as he gently passed over my neck, biting and sucking at the tender skin there. I opened one eye lazily to peek at the tuft of silver hair that was brushing my cheek.

"Sakura..." I felt him smile, as he gently showered my collarbone with kisses, his mouth moving closer to the collar of my shirt as his hand crept up under the hem of it.

"Hmm...?" A small sound of both pleasure and acknowledgment at the same time.

"Sakura, wake up." The dream faded and my eyes snapped open. Kakashi was still in henge, and it took me a second to adjust to the sight of him sitting next to me, expressionless as usual. He seemed to have decided that he needed his mask back, because it was covering up his face and neck again. I groaned in pain as I gathered my bearings.

"Nightmares again?" I was laying flat on my back on the hard wooden floor, my feet twisted up painfully in the sheets still up on the bed, and my right glove snagged on the frame of Kakashi's bed. The room wasn't pitch black, but the sun wasn't shining in the open window yet either, meaning that he had woken me up sometime just before dawn. Wincing, I pulled my feet towards me, dislodging the sheets from the end of the bed where they had been caught.

"You could say that, I guess." I wouldn't, personally. I worked at disentangling my feet while I sat up, leaning my back against the edge of his bed. My glove had ripped when I tugged it free, the same glove that had been sliced by Kakashi's kunai a couple days ago. I made a mental note to get a more durable pair when we got back as I examined my throbbing ankles.

"You know what's causing them?" I tried not to blush and didn't look up as I shook my head, implying the negative. It's not lying if it's not verbally explicit in it's meaning, right? Examining my ankles only determined that they had been largely cut off from circulating blood, explaining the pins and needles, and that one of them had been in a very awkward position for some time. Neither was really injured, just one was twisted, resulting in a bit of swelling. Nothing some chakra channeling and aspirin wouldn't fix.

"Your health is going to suffer if you can't stop them, Sakura-chan." I shifted up into a kneeling position, hefting myself up onto my bed and grabbing my med-kit. I found my aspirin and swallowed two dry, moving on to heal the swelling to the point where I could at least put my sandal back on. I thought about what he was saying and deciding he was right, admonished that I should stop reading that addictive little book before bed, despite how hot he looked as an ANBU. I sighed, realizing that I'd have to be content letting my thoughts drift that way during free waking hours.

"You're right. I guess I'll have to find a way to stop them. Kakashi-sensei." The sun was coming up, I noticed, as the light illuminating Kakashi's face and shoulders had turned from a very faint grayish light to a more orangey, warm hue that did wonderful things with his long silvery tresses. As if possessed, I found myself reaching forward and ruffling them, causing him to pull back from me, glaring at me in annoyance.

"If you continue to insist on calling me your sensei, at least carry that respect to your actions, Sakura-chan." I drew my hand back as if burned, my cheeks turning pink as I bit my lip. I didn't ever mean to call him that, it was just an old habit.

"Well fine! If that's the case, you can stop treating me like I'm twelve years old and quit calling me Sakura-CHAN!" I'm not sure why I got so mad at his reaction, but I regretted saying what I said as soon as I had done so. His eyebrow raised at being yelled at, but before he could come up with some other maddening response that would provoke my temper, I hopped off the bed and headed for the door.

"You're not supposed to leave, Sakura." I stopped, resting my forehead on the cool wood as my hand found the doorknob. I took a look back at him, and he hadn't moved. He was still sitting cross-legged on the floor between our beds, not looking back. I flushed and turned the knob, opening the door gently.

"No, you two aren't supposed to leave. It's a restriction placed on you because you're not actually girls." I debated if I should take back my words. My name by itself sounded... hollow, without the friendly little suffix he had always added to it. I sighed inaudibly.

"I... I didn't mean what I said. Sakura-chan sounds cuter." I left and shut the door behind me, not waiting for any sort of concession from the stubborn man. I started walking the hallways slowly, following the familiar paths and ending up in front of the Hanakage's office door. I smiled and knocked softly, knowing she'd hear me just fine.

"Masumi! If that's you, you can just shove that damned report right up your-"

"It's me, Sakura." I didn't want to hear the detail she had been about to go into at where her second in command could shove her reports. I wasn't at all surprised to find that they were at odds this morning, I never seemed to see them in anything better than a bad mood directed exclusively at each other.

"Oh! Come in!" Her voice immediately turned cheery and I opened the door, smiling brightly. I was definitely glad the bubbly young woman never seems to sic her fiery temper on anyone but Masumi. I closed the door softly behind me as the young woman hopped over her desk and gave me an enthusiastic hug.

"Sakura-chan, it's been way too long!" I hugged her tightly, giggling softly. She really over exaggerated things too much. She let go and bounced backwards, dancing on the balls of her feet and twirling the ends of her black curls between her fingers. This woman just couldn't sit still, she was worse that Naruto. Nine years ago.

"I was here not even two full months ago, Kimiko-chan." She pouted, bouncing up and down on her tiptoes. I took a quick look at her and appreciated why she was the most sought-after bachelorette among the men in the village.

Her long curls fell well past her slender waist, normally a vibrant golden blond but for whatever reason I assumed was largely because she just felt like it, they were shiny and black now. Her alert eyes were trained on me in all of their violet brilliance, her pouty pink lips fixed in a mischievous grin. She put her hands on her hips and I noticed that her nails were pink today, a similar shade to her lip stain. She was wearing a bright cherry-red yukata, tied loosely with the same beaded cord as every other kunoichi in the village and underneath the yukata, her Shinobi outfit. It was mostly red mesh, and stretched over her ample bust a black sleeveless top of similar material to the tights hugging her hips and thighs.

Why is it that I'm the only adult kunoichi cursed with no sex appeal?

"I know, but two months is such a long time..." Her pout was altogether too cute, and it amazed me still how fast she could manipulate her emotions. She made the perfect kunoichi.

"What's with this mission?" I crossed my arms across my own tiny chest as she stared at me in bewilderment.

"What mission?" I groaned, trying to figure out if she was just playing a game with me. I didn't feel like playing this morning.

"You requested a team of shinobi from Konoha to capture and/or kill a rapist that's been attacking your girls. Talk." Her face changed from confusion to recognition quickly and she jumped up and down happily.

"I didn't know you were a leaf nin! Wow, you are so cool! Have you met Tsunade-sama? How come you didn't tell me?!" Because you never asked. As likable as she was normally, this behavior was getting on my nerves now.

"Kimiko-chan, the mission?" I was slowly losing patience, and she knew it. I wasn't about to deal with a twelve-year old Naruto again, not on an A-rank mission. Understanding, she calmed herself and flopped down into the chair behind the desk, motioning for me to take a seat across from her. I did so quietly, pushing my hair out of my face and resting my hands in my lap. A knock on the door behind me prefaced a calm, highly irritated voice.

"The captain of the cell sent from Konoha wishes to be briefed on their mission. You'd better damn well be awake!" Kimiko laughed spastically as the door opened and I knew immediately that it was Kakashi settling into the chair next to me. Kimiko made a face at me as she quelled her giggling.

"You didn't tell me you had such a hot sister either, Sakura-chan!" I glared at her, gripping my shorts to keep my anger from showing.

"I don't have any sisters, I don't have any family at all, Kimiko-SAMA." I knew she hated it when I called her that, and she had touched a soft spot. She started pouting again, tears beading on her long lashes. I didn't even bother acknowledging her tears, I knew they were fake.

"I didn't know that, Sakura-chan, don't be so mean! I mean, she's like your identical twin!" I scowled at her, taking a glance at the man beside me. He looked the same as earlier , no real emotion reflected in his half-closed black eyes. Regarding him critically, I decided Kimiko was delusional. He was prettier by far than I was, not much different figure-wise, but far more feminine looking. I sighed, wondering why it was only me like this. Both guys on my team turned into sexier girls than I'd ever be.

"Kimiko-SAMA, the mission. Please." Seeing that her act wasn't working on me, she huffed and reverted back to her all-business attitude.

"Alright, alright. Since when did you become such a spoilsport?" She rifled through the myriad scattered papers on her desk, picking one out and holding it out for one of us to take. I caught a glance as Kakashi stood and took it from her. I leaned over to read it when I realized that it was a rap sheet, stylized after a sheet from the bingo book.

"Am I reading this right? He's a damned mind-reader?" I shook my head in disbelief. Nobody could actually read minds, or guys like Kakashi wouldn't be so cool and mysterious anymore.

"It appears so. Kunoichi that have been attacked are reporting that they were lured by... shall we say, the object of their innermost fantasies? He uses a drug which causes total body paralysis, barring the body's most necessary functions such as breathing, the heart beating and so on. The drug does leave the victim lucid, which has been incredibly scarring to some of them, considering that he has been reported as being very... brutal, in his ministrations. The drug wears off on it's own after a while, seems to vary between 30 minutes to 5 or 6 hours, but it doesn't leave any trace in the system, even if it hasn't worn off yet, so our medics aren't sure what it is or how it's being administered." I drew in a breath. It wasn't anything I didn't think I could handle, but knowing I was going to be bait for this kind of creep was akin to being told to dance naked for Sasuke, and I feared the outcomes would be all too similar. This mission would have me tread barefoot on broken glass with no foreseeable comfort.

I felt a hand brush aside the curtain of hair that had fallen in front of my face and I turned to Kakashi, slightly startled. After the events so far this morning, it was strange to see him watching me intently. I turned back away, my cheeks turning pink. It only highlighted to me the guilt I felt at blowing up at him earlier and the fact that I couldn't find a way to apologize properly. I cursed my short temper as I leaned forward in my chair, forehead in my hands and elbows on my knees.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?!" Kimiko had lost the drab monotone she had been rambling on in, adopting a tone of panic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to really upset you earlier, I was just kidding!" I laughed hollowly. Why couldn't I apologize so easily?

"I'm fine, Kimiko-chan. I'm just thinking." I sat back up and sunk back into the old chair. Closing my eyes, I laid my head over the back, wiggling my nose at the stray hairs sticking to my face.

"And so, these are the areas that are regularly attacked, one of these should be ideal for you. Which one of you is playing decoy?" I raised my hand half-heartedly. Despite looking like kunoichi, the other two wouldn't cut it if this freak really did read minds.

"So, Sakura-chan... Who's he gonna appear as?" Her tone was teasing , and I groaned, not wanting to say it in front of him. I squirmed under her curious, cat-like smile and felt my cheeks heat as her gaze was joined by his. I decided to throw out the first name that came to mind, rather than the real one.

"I dunno, Jiraiya-sama." I heard a choked breath being drawn in beside me and I opened an eye to glare at him. He was looking at me in unmasked horror, and I stuck my tongue out at him in a display of inappropriate childishness.

"It was a joke. You know, ha ha, very funny? Jiraiya-sama is a good friend, a wonderful mentor and a terrific creative mind, but The last thing I'd think of him as would be anything regarding love or lust." He didn't look very amused, although Kimiko did. She was practically rolling on the floor in teary peals of giggles.

"Hey, I remember that time you had to help me drag him out of the village, it sure seemed like you knew each other well, heck, you even left together! The girls were so mad when you didn't come back!" I shook my head, willing her not to make it worse. Jiraiya wasn't that bad, seriously. I took a second to cast a short glance at Kakashi. He did not look pleased. He looked pensive, much like Sasuke had, way back when we were genins together.

I stood up, deciding that this briefing was over for me. I was positively sick of hearing that grating laugh, my ankle was still bothering me and I couldn't look at my former sensei without feeling bad for the things I'd said. I turned to walk around the chair and leave, but was met with resistance. I peeked back to meet Kakashi's stern glare, with a petite index finger and thumb holding onto the hem of my shirt, causing it to stretch and ride up a bit.

"Weren't you taught not to leave before your mission briefing is declared over by the client?" I scowled, feeling my temper rise to the surface again and attempted to suppress it. I pulled my shirt out of his hand, ripping it in the process. I turned and started to walk out.

"I've heard all I need to hear. It's you she's briefing, not me. I was just here to spend time with a friend." I wanted to kick myself for the scathing tone I couldn't hold back as I shut the door behind me. Irritated and incredibly angry at myself, I nearly ran back to our room, intent on flopping down on my bed and just thinking for a while. As soon as I had entered the room, I mentally stopped myself from immediately slamming the door, and shut it quietly.

"Good morning, Sakura." I froze and my gaze drifted to the bed closest to me. Sasuke was sitting on the edge of the bed facing me, elbows on his knees and fingers interlaced under his chin. The resemblance to the boy I had been so devoted to nine years ago creeped me out as he stared at me from underneath hooded eyelids.

"Good morning, Sasuke." I didn't venture any more of a greeting, and I couldn't force myself to move away from the door. I wanted to leave again, but I didn't get to make that decision. I only heard a hollow thump and momentarily saw multicolored spots floating across my vision as I felt a pronounced wave of pain originate in my nose, chest and left knee, and I staggered back a step.

"Sakura-chan?" I shook my head gently, raising a hand to my nose to ensure that it wasn't bleeding. I wanted to say something to the blue-clad kunoichi who just smacked me in the face with the door, but I didn't, fearing my temper would get away with me.

"Sakura-chan." His hand nudged my chin up gently, forcing me to look him in the face. His expression was still pensive, but observant, he seemed to be searching to see if I was hurt. I pulled away.

"Come to lecture me about following orders?" He stood up straight.

"No, I came to get you two so that we can do what we came here to do. You, you're coming with me, and Sakura, you need to get dressed." He handed me a wrapped parcel and motioned for Sasuke to follow him. I shut the door behind them and started to open the package. An olive green yukata, white beaded cord and silver hair ornament fell out onto the rumpled bed and I grimaced. The intent was more than apparant, so rather than question or complain about it, I decided just to face it. I stripped off my shirts, leaving me in my shorts and mesh leggings, and my wraps for undergarments. I donned the yukata, tying it on in a similar fashion to how Masumi and Kimiko wore theirs, loose and flaunting of the body underneath. That left the hair ornament. I felt honored to be given one, as these were the equivalent of the village's forehead protectors. I pulled my hair up into a loose and sexily messy up do, flaunting the style of the village as I pinned it in place with the elegant piece.

I was amazed at the strange and impractical traditions of this village, but admired the beauty of it. An all kunoichi village where the name of the game is death and beauty, all rolled up into one. Satisfied, I took a deep breath to calm myself, clipping my smaller med-pack to my belt and then opened the door to leave the room.

"THAT'S what you meant?!" I cringed at the accusatory finger being pointed at me, fidgeting under the scrutiny of the two men.

"Stop staring at me, Sasuke you pervert." It was kind of hypocritical of me to call anyone a pervert, but the way Sasuke was leering at me, it felt warranted. Kakashi at least was feigning disinterest, only casting a glance now and again at the exposed skin I was sporting.

"Sakura-chan, do you think it's wise to look like that to do this kind of a job?" I crossed my arms over my chest to minimize the amount of skin I was showing to the pair, glaring at my now less than enthusiastic teammate.

"Since when do you have reservations against a client's orders, sensei? Kimiko gave me this to wear, and it's fairly apparent that she wants me to wear it like everyone else. Look around. Every kunoichi dresses like this here. It's more common than the chuunin and jounin vests in Konoha." I motioned for them to look at the girls wandering in and out of the residence, dressed in colors according to rank and the odd one wearing her yukata properly was an extreme rarity. In a green yukata, Kimiko was casting me as a chuunin-level nin, not too strong, but not too young either. I had to assume that his tastes fell somewhere in between jounin and genin, possibly favoring medics, as the white flowers on my yukata symbolized that I was.

Grudgingly, the two had to agree with me, because of course, I was right. Nevertheless, they were still staring, and Kakashi's eyes had glazed right over. I audibly cleared my throat, snapping them out of it and drawing their attention back to my face, where it belonged. Neither of them stayed looking at me long, both turning away from me and each turning a pronounced shade of red.

I decided I wasn't going to care at this point. If it was what needed to be done for the mission, it was what I had to do, no questions asked. Even if my teammates weren't acting very professional about it.

I pushed my way past the two, heading for the door leading to the village proper, but Kakashi stopped me, blocking me from moving forward and uncomfortably sandwiching me between the two of them. I backed up quickly, unwilling to be in that kind of proximity with Sasuke. I could care less about Kakashi, he wouldn't try anything unwanted.

"Do you even know where we're going?" His voice sounded less than amused and more than a little choked as he held up the bird's eye map of the village and the surrounding area. I pointed at the largest training ground, the one one at the very southernmost part of the map.

"There's no lack of well-covered vantage points for this area, and it's fairly open. It won't be difficult for you two to see without being seen." Sasuke peered at the map, and then back up at Kakashi.

"You know, I think her idea's better than yours." Kakashi regarded me with interested eyes.

"There's a lot of water, deep water. Try to stay away from it as much as you can, because if he hits you with that drug, you'll drown. It starts working incredibly fast, from what she's told me." I smiled.

"I'll be careful. Wouldn't want to ruin such a cute outfit, would I?" I twirled, causing his eyes to glaze over momentarily and Sasuke to start leering again. It didn't stop Sasuke from butting in with a stupid comment anyway.

"Besides, how much fighting is she going to do? We'll be right there to protect her, like always." I despised the insinuation that I needed their help to the extent that I used to, but decided against saying anything, knowing I'd prove myself in my jounin exam.

"One thing I must request. Stay out of sight until we find out how he administers the drug, even if I need to wait until he decided to use it on me. I want a sample of it for study for future uses and applications." They both looked at me strangely but I disregarded it, pushing past them again, this time successfully, and walked out into the village. I jumped up and caught the edge of the door's overhang, using the slight momentum in combination with my innate strength to vault myself up onto the roof itself. I was followed very shortly by my comrades, all the more graceful and cat-like in their feminized bodies.

"Go on ahead. I can't know where you guys are, if he's as dangerous as reported." A nod from each of them and they each took off in a different direction. The wind picked up and blew my yukata out in front of me as I waited until they were out of sight and I could no longer sense their chakra. Steeling myself for what I needed to do, even knowing what could go wrong, I sped off in the direction of the flooded training area.


	11. 10

-10-

From where I was watching, you couldn't paint a stranger or more beautiful picture. I may have been well out of her range of sense, almost a mile away, but I could see every movement she made, clear as daylight. Her exercises were soft and fluid, her movements pointed and precise, yet each one melted into the next as if they had never been. She persisted in this dance and though it would seem as if that infernal robe would get in the way, she appeared to be seasoned in using the loose fabric with her motions rather than becoming tripped up in it.

I found myself noting that the beautiful kunoichi had changed a lot from the way I remembered her. The first, and probably most important, change was that she seemed to harbor a deep distrust towards her former flame and now he was the one openly pursuing her, with less than desirable results for his part. Whatever had passed between the two when she had taken it upon herself to drag him back to Konoha, it likely hadn't been very good.

Secondly, she was far more bold and open with her actions. Six years ago, you wouldn't find her less than half-dressed on a semi-frozen training ground trying to attract the attention of a known sex offender, backup or no. She seemed a little more than disturbed at first, but she was now taking it in stride, and any reservations she had were either gone or, more likely, very well hidden. Six years ago, you wouldn't have found her defending a certain perverted sannin's actions, let alone openly reading a personalized novel received from him in front of her teammates. Six years ago she hadn't moved that way, like she had stepped out of a copy of one of my risqué orange and green novels.

Now she had grace, strength and almost unimaginable beauty. The fire in her dark green eyes, the way she bit her lip when she had nothing to say, or when she was nervous or scared, the way she talked and moved naturally, right down to that unique pale pink hair that framed her sugary sweet face. It all added up to her naturally sweet sex appeal, which was only highlighted by the fact that it was extremely obvious that she wasn't trying. Every move she made was actually the way she moved, her little expressions completely ingrained to her personality, and it made her all the more irresistible.

In the last day or so, I had to forcefully remind myself that this woman was completely untouchable. She had been my student, a girl I had protected from the dangers of the real world for a time. She had been an obsessed, introverted crybaby at first, but back then it was kind of endearing. She became a talented, strong medic that pulled her own weight on the team, and I slowly started to regret spending so much of my effort on Sasuke, rather than acknowledge that she actually had talent. Now, she was the very embodiment of everything a kunoichi should strive to be, seductive without trying, graceful and strong, with the smarts she had always had to back up that strength with tactics. She was the embodiment of everything I wanted, but couldn't touch the way I wanted to. It was frustrating to know that even after all this time, some higher power was laughing at me.

My train of thought was stopped as the green-clad woman below had done the same. She was standing, one foot on the water, one on the bank, watching something that was blocked from my view. I sat up, alert and ready to lend her my help if she needed it. She stalked forward slowly, like a cat hunting a mouse, her hand pushing aside the edge of her yukata and baring her thigh momentarily as a kunai found its way to her fingers. I followed her line of sight to catch what held her gaze. Lying on the ground, looking very much the pincushion, was me.

It took a second to register the identity of the rag doll clad in green jounin vest, the over sized navy sweats and the plated fingerless gloves, but there was no mistaking it, even underneath the blood, dirt and carpet of shuriken stuck in my back. The target was using me to get what he wanted. The implications it brought to mind immediately were pleasant and highly inappropriate, at least until I forced myself to accept that with our situation being so different from the norm, the target was likely changing his bait.

I watched as she approached the prone form and flipped it on its back. I cringed, thankful that she wouldn't actually do that to me without taking the offending projectiles out first. At least, I hoped not. She had undone the vest and had a hand under it, kunai raised in the other. I couldn't see what she was doing under the vest, but less than a second after she had drawn her hand away, the rag doll spasmed violently and she skidded backwards as she dodged a kunai aimed at where she had been kneeling. The corpse rolled and the shurikens disappeared as he got up, not looking all that hot. Whatever she had done to him had messed him up badly, and from the look of the coy smile on her face, it had worked as intended.

He darted towards her, forming seals at far less than a perfect speed. This guy shouldn't have been that difficult to deal with, and I'm sure that's what she thought as she sidestepped his jutsu, grabbing his arm and deftly countering with a well-placed throw into one of the larger rock formations dotting the waterlogged grounds. She alighted back onto the water's surface, and I noticed for the first time that she wasn't wearing her shoes. She was watching the man now righting himself, the expression on his face one of malice and disgust as he dashed forward again, this time with a small sword drawn.

She dodged his attacks with little difficulty, a strange look of amusement flashing in her eyes as she made no move to counter. She was playing with him, and I was amazed at just how fast she had gotten. She could put Sasuke to shame.

She apparently didn't think her life was in any danger and even after a few near misses, she was still making no move to counter or take out the target. Inwardly, I wondered if she was serious about finding out how he was administering the drug, but dismissed it as folly. She'd have to take the hit to figure it out, and that would leave her wide open to whatever brutality he could administer before we could get down there to finish the job.

Unfortunately, and I'm sure she saw it too, our foe was getting exponentially quicker as this little game of tag dragged on, and the near misses were building up at an alarming rate as she seemed less and less able to keep ahead of his movements. She had started to deflect his strikes, wary of the injury the sword could inflict and throwing off his blows as she attacked his arms and torso, preventing him from hitting her.

I sat forward, ready to get down there and interfere if he somehow did get her into a position that she would need my help, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a black and blue blur rush past me and slam down onto the water, blue ball of electricity screeching out of a petite fist. I cursed at his rashness as I watched Sakura's attention divert, subsequently causing her to skid across the the deepest part of the water as she suffered a solid blow across the chest and a softer one across her thigh.

As she regained her balance, her hand drifted to her thigh, a large gash making itself visible even as her form drooped, her body starting to sink beneath the water. The sword. It was the sword administering the drug. It had been transferred through the open wounds, and nobody thought of it because the attacks were reported as overly brutal.

I jumped off the tree branch, covering the ground between us as fast as I possibly could in this body. I didn't get very far before I saw what I should never have seen. I watched the split second she lost control. The exact second her chakra gave out completely, and she slipped soundlessly beneath the surface, and I saw the bubbles that signified she couldn't hold her only breath. I focused my chakra into my legs to speed up, noting absently that Sasuke was having trouble dealing with our orders. He had apparently forgotten that we weren't supposed to kill. Too late now.

I dove beneath the water where she had fallen, hopeful that she could still be revived. Resting on the bottom, maybe ten feet down, she looked peaceful, but lifeless and cold, and it hurt me to see her like that. Her hair floated loose, torn from its binding by her fight previously and her right arm floated bare, loosed from its sleeve by her descent into the clear depths. I grabbed her around the waist and kicked towards the surface, realizing belatedly that her kimono had come undone at one point and now remained behind as we broke through the surface of the pool.

Wasting no time, I pulled down my sopping mask and pressed my mouth to hers, exhaling in an attempt to make her breathe. When she didn't, I tried again, and again, treading water to keep us afloat. Finally she spasmed in my arms as she let out a retching cough, expelling the water from her lungs as she resumed breathing, however shallowly. She still wasn't moving, but that was most likely an effect of the drug in her system. I focused my chakra to my feet and arms to stand on the water and still be able to carry her weight. As a woman, I didn't have the upper body strength I would have naturally. I stood up on the surface of the water and hefted her up so that I was holding her under her knees and shoulders, not bothering to replace my mask.

A short glance at Sasuke revealed him to have stripped the target of his weapons, leaving him sprawled haphazardly on the ground, a chunk burned out of his gut by Sasuke's overenthusiastic application of the chidori. Sasuke himself was staring at me, his anger barely contained behind cold eyes, fists shaking at his sides.

"Leave all the weapons here, the kunoichis from the village are going to clean up. Just sheathe his sword and bring it with you, don't touch the blade. And lastly, don't look at me like that. This is your fault, not mine." I turned and sped in the direction of the village without another word spoken between us, fully recognizing the fact that the mostly undressed kunoichi would freeze to death if not treated quickly.

* * *

They wouldn't let us in the recovery room.

Kimiko-sama had been called to tend to her friend personally, and for the first time, I was really glad that Tsunade-hime wasn't the only medic-kage. It had actually been several hours, and Sasuke, that idiot, had left a long time ago. I was just waiting here, unable to force myself to leave.

"Hatake-san?" A blue-eyed blond-haired preteen girl peered out from behind the door and I nodded, standing up and following her. Her physical resemblance to Naruto was actually really odd. She led me down a sterile white hallway and I bristled, remembering exactly why I hated hospitals so much. She stopped in front of a wooden door and held it open, retreating back to the main lobby once I had entered the room. I shut the door gently and took a seat near the bed, one eye on the curly-haired kunoichi reading and taking notes on a clipboard across the bed from me.

"You're not really a girl, are you?" I continued to watch the Hanakage in disinterest, then turned my gaze to the lump of blankets on the bed itself.

"No, I'm not. Sakura is in fact the only kunoichi who was sent on this mission. Why?" My hands found their way to my pockets as I decided I should probably get comfortable. I had stepped in an empty room earlier to undo and redo the henge, drying out my clothes in the process.

"You don't walk, or act like any kunoichi I've ever seen, and considering my preferences, I've seen a lot of them. You walk like a guy. But that's not it, not totally. It's because if you were a real kunoichi, you wouldn't have let her be the bait. Not with the way you evidently care for her. You may not consciously show it, but it shows, nonetheless."

"Of course I care for her. She's the only female student I ever taught, and I protected her as a young girl." I regarded the young woman thoughtfully as she slid her glasses off and put them away in her shuriken pouch.

"But you're no longer her teacher, and she no longer needs you to protect her. So why do your feelings still make themselves known so prominently? Don't try to give me those head games for answers, I'm better at it than you are." I couldn't place what this woman was trying to say. That my feelings ran deeper than a teacher student relationship should warrant? That was true, but it wasn't any of her business, in reality.

"Mind your own business. What I feel for her is my business, and mine alone." She was no longer smiling as she moved towards the door, turning to glare at me distastefully.

"You know, if you let what you feel for her hurt her in any way, neither she nor the man she loves will forgive you." She didn't say anything more as she left, shutting the door behind her. Almost as if on cue, the lump of blankets shifted, a lean pale arm pushing them aside and revealing the disheveled young woman, clad in a pale pink hospital gown. She sat up, brushing the pink tresses out of her face as her gaze fell on me and adopted an amused, if sleepy attitude.

"Hey there." That sweet smile, the way she said those words, I couldn't comprehend how she could be so aloof, so casual after she had nearly died due to an idiot teammates' actions. She leaned forward and crossed her arms over her knees, pushing the blanket further aside and checking out her legs. I couldn't help but smile back at her as she poked at the stitches across her bare thigh. I averted my gaze before it wandered where it shouldn't, and found myself staring at the multitude of pale scars breaking up the slightly darker toned flesh of her feet and shins.

"I had a lot of accidents while I trained." She had caught me staring, but was still smiling happily. She held out her hands, palms up. Two very large scars were centered over her palms. In her left hand, a starburst shaped one and in her right, a slash bisecting her hand from the tip of her middle finger right through to her elbow, with a puncture spot in the center of her hand. Puzzled, I couldn't imagine what she could have done to scar herself so badly during training.

"What happened?" She put her chin in her hands, stared at her feet and giggled.

"I made a bet with Jiraiya-sama." She didn't elaborate, but she had piqued my curiosity.

"About what?" She kicked her blankets off and swung her legs over the side of the bed towards me, standing up hesitantly. I offered my hand, but she didn't take it.

"I was working on a jutsu I was creating, and he had figured out what I was doing wrong. He bet me that I couldn't figure it out before the next copy of his book hit shelves, and I got injured during the trial and error part. I did win, however, and it was worth every mark." A wave of anger washed over me at the reckless bet made by someone I considered a friend, but was quelled just as fast by the pride I felt that she had bested the old pervert at his own game.

"So, what's this new jutsu?" She giggled as she walked slowly, testing her legs.

"I hope you'll never have to see it, Kakashi." Her smile had faded slightly, her gaze now fixed distantly out the only window in the room as her hands found their way to the hem of her nightgown. I couldn't help but feel some apprehension that she didn't want me to see the jutsu, whether because of it's destructiveness or it's self-destructiveness, I couldn't know. A soft knock at the door attracted my mind back to the present.

"Who is it?" Her gaze drifted to the door as it opened, her eyes flashing in unbound hatred for a moment before she turned, her face calming back to placid disinterest.

"Listen, Sakura..." I didn't even need to turn to know that it was Sasuke standing just inside the door, hands in his pockets. It was probably a good thing I didn't, because now that I was assured of Sakura's safety, there wasn't anything but my reputation holding me back from beating him shitless for what he had done, and even that was only holding by a thread.

"Sasuke, don't bother. You don't trust my abilities and you don't trust my judgment. I don't need to hear a word from you, so just leave." She was leaning one hand on the bed's guardrail, with her other hand trailing absently through damp rosette locks. Her voice was cool and detached, not betraying the serenity of her face, but the expression in her eyes was different. In them was evident the pain she was battling. Whether this was because she still had feelings for him or she was just hurt at being underestimated I couldn't tell, but I hoped it wasn't the former. She was smarter than that.

"Sakura, I--" I sensed him step closer, albeit hesitantly, but I SAW her snap. She wheeled around and punched him square in the face. There wasn't any chakra behind it, another unfortunate side-effect of the drug being that it drained its victims almost dry, but he still staggered backwards, hands to his nose. It was all I could do to spring up fast enough as I saw her draw back for another strike.

"Let go! That jackass deserves it, and you know it!" I held her back, having managed to wrap an arm around her waist and grab her wrist, only realizing late that this would be extremely difficult being the same size as her. She struggled fiercely, tempting my self-control with the suggestiveness of the way she squirmed. I forced away the naughty mental imagery, sporting a restrained smile.

"Now now, Sakura-chan... If you really wanted to, couldn't you just... make me?" I let a slight playful tone into my voice to let her know that I wasn't being altogether serious about holding her back, I just didn't want her to do anything she'd regret later. She stopped struggling and relaxed, letting her arms fall limp to her sides and her head dip, hair falling like a curtain around her face.

"Please tell me you aren't defending him, Kakashi-sensei." I let her go, a sign that I trusted her to behave.

"Nope. I'd just rather not have to report to Tsunade that either of you had been killed, but if you feel you must, be my guest." Sasuke shot me a dirty look as blood streamed through his fingers. She had really got him good. She looked back at me, then at Sasuke, then back at me before she just crossed her arms and huffed angrily, turning her back to Sasuke.

"You aren't worth it." The statement was aimed at Sasuke even though she was facing me, and that short sentence seemed to draw an unprecedented level of tension into the room. It wasn't even comfortable to stand there.

"Get lost Sasuke. I have to get dressed." The look he was aiming at me was murderous, and he wasn't about to let me get away with this.

"Why not Kakashi too? You want that pervert here while you undress?" I could feel my cheeks turn pink under my mask as I walked to the door.

"No, Kakshi-sensei is at least gentleman enough to leave of his own accord, and who the hell do you think you are, calling him a pervert?! Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was YOU undressing me in your head and acting like a horny teenager! He at least had the decency not to look!" I felt bad for admiring her as much as I did now, even though I knew she was lying to prove a point. She had gotten far more observant in recent years, and there was no way she missed it, no matter how sneaky I was.

"You're giving yourself too much credit. Why would I bother imagining a flat-chested twig like you naked when I could go strip in front of a mirror?" I snapped my head around fast enough to see Sakura's expression turn from a flaring anger to one of shock and pain, her hand flying up to touch her chest.

"Sasuke, that's enough. Get out." I held open the door, watching him as he turned and left and shut the door behind him. I turned to take another look at the troubled girl who had sat down on the edge of the bed, feet up and arms wrapped around her knees. I cleared my throat to say something, and her head snapped up, her eyes cloudy.

"You should go too, Kakashi-sensei." She was biting her lip again as she stared at the white tiled floor. I was torn between staying and lending her some comfort and doing as she asked. I settled on something somewhere in the middle.

"Sakura-chan... His opinion shouldn't mean very much to you. He doesn't have a very high opinion of anyone but himself, and you don't deserve to beat yourself up over anything he says to you." I opened the door and left so that she could dress herself, slowly heading back out to the village proper.

It was a while before she rejoined us outside, dressed and pronounced healthy, if tired. Kimiko-sama had come out to stop us from leaving before she could say goodbye. She exchanged an embrace with the less than enthused kunoichi, handing her a large package wrapped in pink tissue.

"Don't be a stranger, Sakura-chan. I was going to keep these here until you came back, but then again, I wasn't expecting you back so soon. I guess it wont hurt to give these to you now. Happy Birthday." Sakura smiled softly, very obviously still bothered about earlier and not wanting to show it.

"Thank you, Kimiko-chan. I'll come back when I can, okay?" The dark-haired girl nodded happily and accompanied us out of the village. Once we were beyond the gates, Sasuke lost no time in undoing the henge, returning to his usual form with a pronounced look of relief. I followed suit without nearly as much enthusiasm. Kimiko looked at us both critically as she patted Sakura on the back.

"They aren't too bad looking, if you swing that way. Lucky you." Sakura only glared at Sasuke, muttering something only Kimiko could hear clearly. It wasn't very pleasant, but Kimiko smirked as she stole a glance at me. After they had said their final goodbye, not another word was heard from her on the entire journey, except for an abbreviated 'thanks' when I gave her the sword that had been used to poison her.

Unlike the journey there, the return trip took three days, because of our late start and slow travel pace for the first day. Once we had gotten back, Sakura left immediately for her house, Sasuke took off to god knows where, and I was left to find my way back to my apartment to write up the mission report. While Sakura wasn't going to like it, I had to go into every detail of what traversed on the mission, as per Tsunade's orders. I was no doubt going to get yelled at by both women, one angry that I hadn't interfered when I should have, the other miffed that I had tattled. I was certainly not looking forward to the aftermath of handing in the report.


	12. 11

-11-

I was roused by a persistent, annoying knocking at my window. I groaned, looking at the clock on my desk and definitely not liking what I saw. It was only a quarter to five, and I had already been woken up once, just after midnight, by an overzealous young jounin clad in green spandex who had somehow discovered I was back in town and wanted to be the first to wish me well on my birthday. As the knocking persisted, I rolled and ripped the seal that was keeping my window locked off, opening the window a crack without bothering to look, my face buried in my pillow.

"What the hell do you want, it's not even daylight out, for Christ's sake." I heard the curtain slide aside and the window be pushed open more.

"Nice to see you too, Sakura. Heard you had a bit of a rough time on your mission." I turned my head just enough to peer at the spiky haired blondie who was sitting on my windowsill, one foot perched up against the window frame, the other resting on the bed beside my shoulder.

"I don't want to talk about it, Naruto. Now seriously, what in the hell are you doing here at this hour? I've already had to deal with Lee this morning, and it wasn't pretty, so you'd better have a damn good reason for waking me." He dropped a scroll square on the back of my head and I rubbed the sore spot where it landed, grumbling as I watched it lazily roll off of the bed and onto the floor.

"What is it?" He just shrugged, raising his hands and resting them on the window frame behind his head as he watched me.

"I reported from the mission we had been sent on, and Tsunade-baachan told me to give that to you as soon as possible. She didn't say what it was for, just said I should do it on the way home and wish you happy birthday. Oh, and Happy Birthday." I swatted him lightly, readjusting my pajamas before reluctantly leaving the warmth of my bed. I didn't want to give Naruto more of an eyeful than I had to. I picked up the scroll, figuring it was something pertaining to either my exam or the mission and either way it would be important. I broke the seal and immediately found myself to be right.

"Your schedule for today is as follows: 9am Written exam in my office. 11am Physical/Mental evaluation Room 304 at the hospital. 1pm Practical battle evaluation on training ground 7. You are not to speak with Uchiha Sasuke or Hatake Kakashi until after the completion of your examination. If you have any questions, see me before the written exam. Happy 21st, Sakura." I read the contents of the scroll aloud, intuitively knowing that Naruto would try to read over my shoulder otherwise. He slid down off the sill and sat down next to me on the bed.

"What exam? Why can't you talk to Sasuke or Kakashi?" I rolled the scroll back up, stretching out leisurely before placing it on the desk. I wouldn't get anything done today if I didn't get up now, with how early my exam was.

"My jounin exam. I'm not sure why I can't talk with Kakashi-sensei, but Sasuke's my examiner, so that's obvious. I dunno, maybe she thinks I'll get him to play favorites and I'll get special help?" My thoughts trailed out as I tried to think of a reason I couldn't speak with my former sensei. I gathered the clothes scattered on my floor that I had discarded last night, deciding that I might as well wash them before I was stuck back in them again today.

"You're not a jounin yet? But... today's...your party..." I looked back at him in confusion as he trailed off, a disappointed note marring his normally cheery voice.

"When was I supposed to have turned jounin? When I wasn't here to take the exam? C'mon, use your head, of course I'm not a jounin yet. Now, what's this about a party?" I left the room, motioning for him to follow me. He did so while I stuck my armload of clothes into the wash and then headed into the kitchen for some breakfast.

"Ah... the girls are throwing you a birthday slash welcome back party... it was supposed to be for today right after Ino got off her shift at the hospital, but I guess you'll be busy then... Temari is even in town for it..." I rolled my eyes and offered him a cup of instant ramen.

"Breakfast? You're probably hungry if you just got back from a mission." He nodded exuberantly, as I knew he would. He was always hungry, if it was ramen. I set about preparing two, one for him and one for myself, having nothing else in the house to make for breakfast. I had forgotten to go get food last night before getting to work on preparations for my exams.

"So... why's Sasuke been picked as your examiner? Was he the only person available? If so, I have no problem going to Tsunade-baachan and telling her I'll do it, you know..." I handed him the ramen and a set of chopsticks and he dug into it standing across from me while I sat up on the counter to eat mine.

"Sasuke is my examiner because Tsunade-shishou allowed me to pick my own." I raised an eyebrow as he started choking, presumably in surprise at my answer. I got him a glass of water and stayed silent while he gathered himself.

"You're joking, right? You know he's ranked one of the best in the village? Hand-picked to be screened for ANBU? What is wron-" He stopped as I slammed my empty cup on the counter.

"Don't think I can handle him? Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Naruto." I hopped off the counter, taking my garbage and tossing it out as he just stood there, looking unsure of what to say.

"That's not what I meant, Sakura. I'd never doubt your ability as a ninja, but have you really thought about this? I mean, have you seen what he could do to you if he tried? It's not pretty, I've seen it myself." He was looking at me in concern as he threw out his empty ramen cup. I crossed my arms and stared up at him, recognizing the poorly disguised excuse.

"You haven't seen what I can do, Naruto, and don't think for a second that the aftermath would be any more pleasant looking than anything he could do." I softened my tone when I noticed that he had shrunk back from me.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, and honestly? I had considered both you and Kakashi-sensei first while I was choosing. I decided it'd be easier for me to handle Sasuke." He still looked skeptical, but start blushing softly once he realized that I basically said I thought he was a better ninja than Sasuke.

"You know he won't hesitate to use it, right? Even if it is you." His voice grew solemn and his gaze was centered on me, looking completely serious again. I nodded confidently.

"I know. What's your point? Listen, don't worry. It's not good for you, and I promise I can take care of myself. I have my own tricks now." I smiled encouragingly at him, but his expression didn't change.

"I'm just saying, Tsunade-baachan probably wouldn't mind if you had a change of heart, that's all. Think about it." He stood up straight from where he had been leaning back on the counter looking troubled, and I followed him to the door.

"Go home and get some sleep. I'll let you know how it goes, okay?" He just nodded as he left, obviously deep in thought. I shut the door and went to go check on my laundry.

Unfortunately, as I discovered when I went to put the clothes in the dryer, The white long-sleeved shirt I had ended up ripping was now in irreparable tatters, the washer having finished what I started. I sighed as I tossed out the wet mass of shredded fabric, realizing that I was reduced to just the over shirt itself. I shuddered, uncomfortable with just wearing the short shirt by itself and wondering if I had anything, even just a mesh shirt to wear underneath.

Once the clothes had started drying. I made my way back to my room and my closet, taking a quick look around the shelves for anything that would cover up my midriff. I didn't find any mesh, but there was that black camisole that had been part of a pajama set way back when. It was sorta silky and not really all that practical, not to mention that my arms would remain bare, but it did cover my stomach, and I had some mesh sleeves I could semi-cover my arms with.

Deciding that it was the best I could do for now, I put aside the skimpy shirt and sleeves along with some clean wraps and underpants. I couldn't get dressed yet, but I could at least get washed up. It would be a bit before my clothes were dry anyway. I took a second to shut my window and replace the seal on it, having forgotten to do it when Naruto came in.

I took my time getting ready, because the sun had just started to peek over the horizon and I wasn't in any real hurry. When I got out of the shower, I wiped down the steamy mirror over the bathroom counter and took a good look at myself. I knew that Sasuke was right, because all told, I thought exactly the same thing. I really didn't have much in the way of curves, and I was really lean. My skin wasn't all smooth and perfect, and my scars stood out prominently white against the darker backdrop of the flesh around them. Still, It really hurt coming from someone else, even if it was someone who I didn't really care for their opinion.

Kakashi had tried to make me feel better. I knew he wouldn't say anything about his own opinion, because his was probably not all that different from Sasuke's, but at least he tried. It worked too, for the same reason it always worked when he tried to cheer me up. He had always managed to make me feel better when I was down, even way back when I was twelve. I wouldn't ever admit it out loud, but he was really the reason I left to train. I just couldn't keep the blushing and the butterflies in check anymore when I was around him, and I wanted to get away, to see if I could get over the stupid little crush I had developed on him, like I had gotten over Sasuke when I was no longer around him all the time.

No such luck. Six years without him and I still couldn't get him out of my head. Of course, Jiraiya had clued in early on, and he was never one to make things easy. He teased me incessantly, got me addicted to those mildly pornographic novels of his and had even gone so far as to go out of his way to get notes from my teammates for me, mostly Kakashi. Naruto wrote notes too sometimes, but his messages were mostly verbal, as were those from Tsunade. Sasuke never sent anything, but I'd bet that was due to an aversion for the sannin, not out of lack of wanting. Kakashi... he wrote a note every single time, even though I couldn't bring myself to write back. His notes were mostly encouragement and reminding me that the team was still there waiting for me, but the fact that he wrote every time was really touching. I kept every note, too. They were sewn into the lining of my bag, a reminder of why I was training away from home. Once I finally gave up and came back, quest failed horribly, Jiraiya decides to give me that book for my birthday, and now I couldn't keep thoughts of Kakashi in ANBU gear or even less from constantly buzzing in the back of my mind like white noise. The worst part of it all wasn't that the relationship wasn't likely to happen. That, I had accepted and could deal with, otherwise I wouldn't have come back at all. No, it was that all this time playing babysitter for Tsunade, Jiraiya was purposely keeping my mind on an unattainable man because he found it hilarious.

I snapped back to reality, turning away from my reflection and wondering just how long I had stood there trapped in my own musings, as my skin was no longer even damp, except where the droplets of water falling from my hair skimmed across the skin in tiny criss-crossing tracks. I grabbed my towel and dried my hair, brushing my teeth at the same time. I left the bathroom to go check on my clothes, and, finding them dry, took them back to my room to get dressed and ready to go.

Once I was dressed, the clock was still only saying seven thirty, much to my relief. I unpacked and restocked both my med kit and shuriken pouch, making sure I had everything I would need for my exam. I had spent all of last night up until the point where I fell asleep analyzing the sword I had brought back from the Flower country, and had eventually recreated the drug in a liquid form, storing it in a few auto injector syringes, along with one vial of an antiserum. These I put into my kit too, before I took the sword, now clean, and belted it around my waist, shoving the sheath around back, so the sword itself could be drawn quickly with my left hand. It would be a waste not to put such a fine weapon to use, especially since I wasn't half bad with one, and Sasuke would likely be using his own.

I was naturally right-handed, but I had made it as much of a point to become ambidextrous during my training as I had training myself to sense chakra signatures and sensing genjutsu eyes. That last one had been the most difficult, but I had done it, and now the skill was like a sixth sense, one that made me extremely resistant to genjutsus of all sorts, even from the sharingan. Kakashi had tried to use one on me in Hanagakure to relax me, but inwardly I was kind of proud of myself that I could at least beat one aspect of the famous copy-nin. I had even successfully applied an illusion of my own to him, something I had thought would be impossible because of the nature of the sharingan.

Satisfied that I was ready, I checked the clock. Still only eight o clock. I sat down at my desk and pulled open a couple of medical scrolls. I'd study until my written exam, just to be sure. I knew I was smart enough to pas with little difficulty, but it never hurt to make sure.

* * *

"You're late. I thought I told you not to go adopting any more of your old sensei's bad habits?" I scratched my cheek sheepishly. I hadn't actually meant to be late, I just got caught up studying.

"Well, I guess you're not that late, so I'll let it slide. Any questions before you start?" She looked troubled when i shook my head no, and stopped me when I turned to go start my test.

"I know I gave you the choice, and whatever you do decide, I'll use my best judgment, but I still have to ask. Are you sure you want Sasuke as your examiner?" I dared not glare at the blond woman behind the desk. I felt my skills were being slightly under appreciated, even though I knew she probably should ask. Anyone else's health would be in serious hazard against an opponent like the one I had chosen for myself. I nodded politely, indicating that I was indeed very sure of the choice I had made. Her troubled look only intensified, especially after a small poof was heard, and I didn't even need to turn to recognize the distinctive chakra that had winked into existence beside me.

"Yo." He raised his hand and waved at me, his uncovered eye crinkling in a smile. My stomach flip-flopped, and I just waved, knowing that I wasn't supposed to be speaking with him. Tsunade looked positively livid.

"You're late, Kakashi. What part of eight o clock leads you to believe that I want to see you at ten after nine? I need to get both of you watches, maybe you'll start being on time." Kakashi looked at me, eyebrow raised and smirking in amusement. I turned back to Tsunade, and she waved me towards the table and chair near the door.

"Sakura, you may go start your exam now. Kakashi, sit." A look of perplexed interest crossed his face as I turned to go and sit at the desk. I started my test as I listened to their conversation.

"Is this about the mission?" Kakashi's voice sounded strained, as though he didn't actually want to hear the answer. I heard an angry huff as I breezed through the general knowledge section of the test, most of the questions way too easy for my tastes.

"Not yet, but that'll be next. If you had been here on time, like Sasuke was, I wouldn't have to be doing this a second time. Sakura's taking her jounin exam today, and she's picked Sasuke as her examiner." I took a peek up from my page to see Kakashi still standing, hands in his pockets as he cast a short glance back at me with an eyebrow raised. I blushed, resuming the systematic demolition of my exam.

"She's got guts, and it's definitely not a bad choice, considering the level of skill she's demonstrated so far. Now, what am I doing here?" I blushed even harder, glad to have the confidence of at least one person. Tsunade sighed in defeat.

"Here I was hoping you were going to agree with me and get her to change her mind. In that case, since you're so confident that she'll be alive and whole at the end of it all, I'll get back to what I originally summoned you here for. You'll be the exam proctor. You get to play referee, in short. 12 noon, training ground 7. If you're late, you'll be found and dragged there. Am I clear?" I almost giggled, before I took a second to think. Now it was obvious why I wasn't supposed to be talking to him. I wondered if Tsunade was doing this because we were all on the same team, thinking it would be easier for us.

"Crystal. Is that all?" His voice took on a very slight tone of something I had trouble identifying. Worry maybe? I turned my attention back to my half-finished exam. I had just come upon the section exclusively for medic-nin, and I stuck my tongue out.

"Not at all. What exactly happened on this mission, Kakashi? You were unusually vague with your written report. I want detail, and I specifically need your observations on your teammates and their interactions. Start right from the beginning." My pen stopped scratching across the paper as the blood drained from my face. I watched her take out a blank scroll and a pen, ready to take notes.

"Well, the morning of, Sasuke challenged me to a spar, causing us both to be injured and late. Sakura was waiting for us and patched us up admirably while being the responsible one and berating us for our lateness. We left, and the first night was spent uneventfully, as was the second day. We arrived at the rendezvous point a night ahead of schedule, but were nevertheless met by the messenger shortly after we arrived." Tsunade was kneading her forehead in her fingers, obviously exasperated.

"Okay, cut the crap. Something's going on with that kid and I need to know what. Skip to the relevant stuff, the stuff you didn't already cover in your report." I furrowed my brow in confusion, more at the subject of their conversation than at the exceedingly simple questions gracing my test page. Was she talking about me?

"Ah. Well, to make a long story short, he went black." I didn't get it at all. He said 'he', so he was talking about Sasuke, but I didn't comprehend more than that. Tsunade looked more than annoyed at the silver-haired man before her.

"Well, make a short story long again, because I need a reasonable amount of detail." I turned back to my exam but continued to listen, hopeful that I might understand if I did. I finished off the section on poisons and diseases and proceeded onto general team maintenance.

"We were waiting at the rendezvous point and Sasuke had settled himself for a nap. When we sensed the messenger approaching, I doused the fire and Sakura woke him. He stood up and hugged her, visibly freaking her out, and she bolted across the clearing. He followed and pinned her up against a tree, trying to kiss her, apparently. She broke his nose, albeit hesitantly, and retreated behind the tree. I sedated him and the messenger showed up. Being a medic, she fixed his nose and Sakura came back to camp." I glanced up at them. Tsunade looked pensive, her brow wrinkled in concern.

"She didn't provoke him in any way?" Kakashi shook his head.

"She just woke him up. She nudged him with her foot, if you want me to be that specific. She doesn't seem to trust him." She closed her eyes and sat back in her chair.

"Has he done this any other time since she got back?"

"What, gone black or pinned her up against a tree?" she exhaled, blowing a stray hair out of her face.

"Gone black." I still didn't get what they were talking about. What did they mean, 'gone black'? Kakashi nodded in response.

"After the elimination of the target, in the hospital, he did so for a short time. Once while he was at Sakura's the night before the mission, and he was already that way when he challenged me the morning of. I had caught him watching her through her bedroom window." My blood froze. His sharingan had been what caused the pins and needles in my neck. He had watched me all the way from my house to the gate, and then it stopped. That must have been when Kakashi had actually caught him.

"I see. She seems to be the trigger then. I had suspected as much. I seriously wonder how intelligent of me it is to actually let them fight today, but I leave it in your hands. Alright, you're dismissed, we'll finish this later." Kakashi didn't disappear like he normally would, instead turning and walking to the door. He rested his hand on my shoulder as he went to open the door, momentarily leaning down close enough to whisper in my ear.

"Knock him dead." I bit my lip and turned what must have been a fabulous shade of red and Tsunade didn't look one bit pleased. I hurried and finished my exam, unable to keep the sensation of his breath ruffling the strands of hair by my ear out of my mind. I handed my completed exam to Tsunade, but was again stopped by my former mentor as I turned to leave.

"I will allow you to continue in your exam with Sasuke as your opponent, as it seems your former sensei has an incredible amount of faith in your abilities. Mind you, he will be watching you two, and stop things if they get out of hand, or either of you become unable to continue. Is that understood?" I nodded, knowing I didn't have any choice. If I didn't agree, she'd reassign my opponent.

"Good. Now, you can head over to the hospital now and we'll go on with your physical, or you can wait the fifteen or so minutes until it's scheduled. Your choice." I shrugged, readjusting one of my mesh sleeves. I had opted not to wear gloves, due to the horrible condition they were in.

"May as well get it over with." She waved me out.

"You know where to go. The room's already set up for you and you know the drill. You too, are dismissed for the time being, and I'll be there shortly." I turned, but thought for a second and decided to pose her a question before I left.

"What did you mean when you were talking about him going 'black'?" I had to satisfy my curiosity. Tsunade stopped writing whatever paperwork she had been doing and looked up at me.

"When you brought him back, Orochimaru had scarred his mind. He basically has a split personality, and the one we've determined isn't his natural self we just dubbed his 'black' side. While he's like this he's generally more aggressive, and before you came back, he only turned that way at mention of you. It stopped for a while as he got used to the fact that you wouldn't be around, but the reality is, now that you're back, his black side seems to be coming out far more frequently." I drew in a breath, not exactly knowing what to think, or to say.

"If it becomes a true problem, we can try to seal the submissive personality, which at the moment, is his black side. The only reason we haven't done anything about it yet is that we weren't sure if it was a true problem, and the jutsus involved can permanently disable his career as a ninja, in a worst case scenario." I nodded, and realizing the time, I performed the seals to quickly transport myself to the hospital. Tsunade's office blinked out of sight as the hospital doors rushed to replace it in my vision. I shook my head slowly, fighting the dizziness and disorientation that always overcame me when I used that particular jutsu. As the symptoms slowly faded, I wondered how Kakashi had ever gotten used to it.

I stepped into the hospital and past the reception area, nodding a greeting at the nurses who cheerily waved at me and made my way up to the third floor. I found my room, my folder already in the rack on the door, and went in. A pink cotton hospital gown lay folded on the bed. I stripped down to nothing but my undergarments and donned the loose garment, folding my clothes neatly and placing them on the bedside table. I had barely sat down before Tsunade walked in, my folder in hand. I bowed my head respectfully and she motioned for me to stand.

"I'll do a general scan first, to assess your overall health. Alright?" I nodded. I didn't bother to tell her about my hands, she'd find out herself right shortly. She started with my feet and legs, making me walk around the room before manually checking the state of each one. Her chakra had a calming, cool sensation as she proceeded to check my entire body over, and I watched her make several notations during the process. When she reached my hands, her eyes narrowed and she wrote nearly and entire paragraph worth of notes. She made me form every seal individually, to check my manual dexterity, and had me produce two normal clones to check my chakra distribution. Lastly she had me walk up one wall of the room, across the ceiling and back down the other wall to check my overall chakra control.

"Well, you're pretty healthy overall, I just have a few questions before we move onto the mental portion. First, how are you adapting to the damage on your hands?" I thought for a second on how to answer that.

"Not badly, the only thing it really affects is my ability to push chakra through my palms, which means it's just my healing abilities. They aren't any weaker, I just have to concentrate it to my fingers instead and I'm not quite as fast at doing them. Otherwise, It doesn't affect me whatsoever." Tsunade nodded, notating my answer.

"Alright, secondly. Did Jiraiya ever pass on my warning about staying in henge so long?" My eyebrows furrowed as I shook my head no. I watched her eyebrow twitch as she notated that too.

"And lastly, How do you perform your genjutsus?" I raised my eyebrow at the odd question.

"I can perform most of them by eye contact alone, which saves me the obviousness of hand seals, but I do need them for some of the more complicated jutsus. For some of my most advanced ones I actually need physical contact." She nodded, making another note and then putting her pen down as she faced me, her expression not quite pleased.

"Alright. I was planning on putting your medical talent to use here in the hospital, but if you won't be able to do the surgeries, I'll have to keep you as a field medic, and you'll just do the regular shifts here that everyone is stuck doing. In addition to that, however, I will ask you a favor. Your teammates both have a bit of an aversion to this place, and don't like to be tended by my medics. Kakashi has mentioned that you successfully managed to heal them both, and I see that they haven't inflicted any injury upon you for it. Basically, I'm assigning you a permanent position as personal medic to the two of them, even if your team dissolves down the road. Is that alright with you?" Kakashi's personal medic? Hell yeah!

"Yes, I can handle that."

"Good. Now, your physical development has temporarily halted itself. I told Jiraiya to warn you about the dangers of staying in henge for such long periods of time, but he didn't, for whatever reason. Your body is only physically about sixteen or seventeen, which is when I imagine you started using the henge as a full-time thing. Now that you're back in your normal body, the aging process will resume, but I'm warning you right now. No more. If you most change your appearance for a mission, you do it manually. Dye your hair, stuff your bra, wear heels, whatever, but no transformations, or you risk stopping your body from developing normally at all." My heart leaped in joy. Maybe I wasn't condemned to be shapeless my entire life. She continued her spiel as I sat silently.

"Now lastly, your eyesight. When you use your eyes to channel the chakra for genjutsu, it places extraordinary strain on the optic nerve, causing your eyesight to start failing. I imagine after training for a particularly long time, it takes you quite a while to be able to see straight again, right?" I nodded. Only after a very long time or a particularly powerful jutsu.

"Yeah, I thought so. Now, it's not pronounced yet, in fact, your eyesight is still better than normal, but if you wish to continue to use your jutsus as you have been, I'll need you to come in for eye exams once a year at least, and I want you to come in for optical regeneration once every two months, and after every long term mission. In the meantime, you can continue with whatever maintenance you have been performing, as it seems to have been working very well." I nodded. After she was done with her advice, she reopened my folder, flipping a few pages and picking up her pen again.

We ended up playing twenty questions for a while as she thoroughly picked apart my psyche, from integrating the questions into casual conversation to observe my social responses to bluntly asking in depth personal questions to determine my emotional stability. She seemed particularly concerned when she brought up my parents and I didn't respond the way she expected me to, but eventually pronounced me sound of mind and health. She took a blood sample for my record and gave me leave to get dressed as she wished me luck and left the room.

I got dressed again and took a glance at the clock on the wall. It was only ten past noon. Time enough to grab a bite to eat before the last part of my exam, but not enough time for a sit down meal. I grabbed a carrot muffin from the hospital cafeteria before I left, intent on getting to the grounds before the fight. In all honesty, most of my training here had been limited to our normal training grounds, and seven was one of the ones I wasn't familiar with. I wanted to be able to evaluate it and determine what kind of conditions I would be dealing with.

I arrived at my destination just as I shoveled down the last bit of my cardboard flavored snack, and I wasn't initially pleased when I set eyes on the location for the last portion of my exam. It had to be the wettest spot in the entirety of the Fire country, honestly. There were barely any patches of solid ground, it was mostly limited to the edges of the area, it basically being a large reservoir with stony edges and a few sparse stepping stones dotting the surface. There was a rock wall enclosing the grounds on three sides, with a wide, rushing waterfall coming in from the lowest point on the rock face. The water emptied out a bit to the left of the waterfall, where the concrete wall started, making up the fourth side of the enclosure. On top of it all, the air was extremely humid and heavy, a thick mist covering the surface of the water.

I took off my sandals and laid them by the edge of the enclosure where the concrete wall met the natural stone, opposite the waterfall. It was so much easier to channel chakra when it didn't have to travel through fabric or, in this case, the soles of my footwear. I opened my med kit, assuring myself that the vials of drug were right on top, where I'd need them shortly.

It was ten to one now. I stepped out onto the water, getting used to the depth, which had to have been at least twenty-five feet at the deepest points, and the force of the current, both of which would affect how much chakra I would need to stay afloat. It wasn't great, but it wasn't that bad either. The undertow might pose a problem if I went under, but there were ways around that. I was actually glad for the watery area, after thinking about it. Sasuke's fire-based jutsus would be next to useless in all the damp air here, which only left me with the most pressing of my difficulties. The chidori was a dense, crackling ball of raw electricity. Water conducts electricity. The air here was so dense with mist that my hair was already hanging in stringy tangles, my clothes sticking tightly to the skin underneath. I hoped I could finish this quickly, before he had a chance to use it. If not, it might end up hurting us both. A soft poof could be heard just behind me over the roar of the falls, and I suppressed a giggled at how well Tsunade's plan had worked.

"Yo! Sorry I'm... late?" I turned and smiled at his automatic response.

"Actually, congratulations. You're early." I smiled in plain amusement at the less than delighted expression he had adopted as he realized that he had been tricked. He didn't have the chance to be put-out for very long, as Sasuke himself appeared in a sputtering puff of fire. He only raised an eyebrow at me, even though his bodily reaction was plainly that of a surprised man. Inwardly, I wondered if he had been told who the examinee would be as my left hand automatically found its way to the sword at my waist. His expression became more serious as he seemed to recognize it and stepped back, right hand on his own blade. He wasn't wearing his jounin uniform today and like me had foregone the forehead protector as well. He was wearing a navy blue sweater and knee-length white shorts, all completely soaked already.

I had a hard time biting back the anger I felt for him as I stared back into his bottomless black eyes. He had spied on me in my own house, tried to force himself on me, nearly got me killed and insulted me, all in the space of a week. The tension hanging between us was thinker than the mist and I was struggling with the urge to take the blade in my hand and disembowel the bastard right there and then. I forced myself to calm down, knowing that letting anger cloud my decisions in this battle could and most likely would be fatal. A voice over the loudspeakers in the corners of the enclosure caught all three of our attentions, and I took note that the sky was thick with clouds, and blackening as quickly as my mood had.

"It is now one pm. This jounin examination battle assessment is being overseen by Hatake Kakashi. Participants Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura will begin at his discretion. Medic-nin Yamanaka Ino and Koutani Yumiko are on standby for emergency treatment after the examination's end." Oh good. Ino would get the pleasure of tending to a battered and drugged Sasuke. Good for her.

I looked to Kakashi for the signal that the fight could begin, and watched him back up well out of the line of fire. He raised his hand and I sprang into action, drawing my sword to block Sasuke's first strike with one of my own and planting a chakra-enhanced kick squarely to the center of his chest. The force was enough to drive him back several feet, and would have sent him flying if we were on dry ground, considering that he had obviously not been prepared for it.

The rain started, pouring down in buckets as he darted forward again, seemingly unfazed by my attack. My neck started to prickle as he activated his sharingan, deciding that I was possibly more skilled than he originally thought. The sky flashed with a streak of lightning as our swords clashed once again, and once again I had his weight bearing down on me, my left hand shaking with the strain of holding him back. I pushed his blade down into the water and launched my counter, grabbing the collar of his sweater and using his weight against him as I turned my body and threw him down to the surface of the water. I landed a solid heel-drop to the pit of his stomach and barely dodged as he swung at me, his face marred in anger and pain. He got up and continued his barrage of sword strikes intermingled with swift taijutsu as I alternately blocked and dodged his blade, taking the hits from his kicks and minimizing the damage I sustained by focusing chakra to the site of impact just as his foot connected.

He was getting frustrated and angry at the difference in our speed and tactics, and it was starting to show. He must have decided that a different approach was needed, because he backed off, past my field of vision, which wasn't actually very far in this torrent. I had ceased being able to see Kakashi shortly after the rain started, but it didn't matter. I could sense them both just fine. Sasuke was standing about twenty feet behind me, and I sheathed my sword, crouching down. Whatever he was planning, he was going to act very soon, and i wasn't going to make this easy for him.

I wasn't disappointed when I sensed his chakra surge and I turned to see a huge flaming bird soar up above, temporarily illuminating the entire enclosure as it turned and dove straight for me. I let go of the chakra in my feet, taking a large breath and suppressing my chakra within myself as I slipped underneath the water, narrowly missing being roasted to cinders. I formed seals as quickly as the water would let me and released my chakra at the same time I released the jutsu. I was temporarily cast down to the muddy lake bed as all the water was drawn together, forming an enormous dragon's shape. I jumped up on top of what had been one of the stepping stones and latched on as the dragon crashed back down, the flood engulfing us both and causing his chakra to flicker and fade in my senses before coming back, immeasurably weaker. I regained my breath again, standing up from where the flood had pressed me down onto the rock and concentrating on my opponent's fluttery chakra as the water below me crashed and swirled wildly. I felt his chakra surge once again, and the air became strangely heavier. I saw the blue spark crackle, even though I couldn't see him, and I felt Kakashi's chakra fluctuate ever so slightly.

I wouldn't let him interfere. I'd end this myself before he got the chance.

I dashed towards my opponent, charging my right hand with as much chakra as I could handle. I could hear the sharp screeching of the chidori as he rushed towards me, and I stopped short just as he came into view, his eyes flashing in primal rage as he struck.

It took split second timing. I grabbed his hand with my own chakra-infused one, shielding myself from the searing electricity with a barrier of my own energy. Kakashi's chakra, which had been rushing towards us suddenly stopped, and I watched as Sasuke's rage gave way to shock, his face only inches from my own impassive one. I took the opening he gave me and twisted his arm, entwining our fingers so that he couldn't move and grabbed the topmost syringe from my kit.

It was over even as he started to realize what I had done. His body started to slide under the water, the syringe falling from his neck, empty. I grabbed him around the waist and hefted him up into a semi-standing position, one arm over my shoulder and my own behind his back. I had drained almost all of the rest of my strength to stop that stupid little ball of lightning, and it was all I could do to get him over to the edge of the enclosure and onto solid ground so that he wouldn't drown when I let go of him.

I lay him down on the ground, adjusting him so that he could breathe properly and sat down myself, back to the wall, exhausted.

"There. We're even, you jackass." I knew he couldn't move, but he could see and hear me just fine. I pulled my wet hair back from my face, leaning my head back for a second to feel the raindrops on my face. I was started to really feel the injuries I had sustained, and the pain was really adding to that feeling of exhaustion. I could feel Kakashi approaching where we were, and started to take a mental assessment of my own injuries. It wasn't that bad, really. The worst was the burn I had sustained from the chidori itself, engulfing my entire right hand and a good several inches up my forearm. Even all the chakra I had used couldn't block it fully, and for a moment I truly admired why they were recognized as a couple of the best shinobi in the village.

"Sakura-chan..." I looked up wearily at the shocked copy-nin as I gingerly tested the places I knew I had been hit. My torso was thoroughly bruised, and I had a few cracked ribs, which attested to the raw strength of the last Uchiha. To my delight, I actually didn't have a scratch on me, not a drop of my own blood spilled, which was more than Sasuke could claim. Even playing the first part almost completely defensively, when I had hit, I had hit cleanly, and he'd be feeling it, that was for sure. Kakashi knelt down beside me and I smiled at him as brightly as I could manage.

"Hey there. Enjoy the show?" He just continued to look at me in utter undisguised shock. I continued to evaluate my own injuries as I waited for him to say something, and I reached into my med kit for a soldier pill. I'd need the chakra boost if I planned on not being detained overnight in the hospital for my injuries.

"Why?" I popped the pill and gazed at him in inquiry.

"Why what? Why did I do something as reckless as rush into the attack?" I felt the rush of energy and quickly put it to use as I went to work, knowing that once I was out of energy again, I'd be feeling absolutely trampled. I felt Kakashi place his hand on my shoulder as I started to repair my injuries, and heard him quietly announce that our match was over and that some medics should probably get down here. I took a look as I healed the burn on my hand to see that he was wearing some sort of waterproof radio ear piece and mic.

"You shouldn't have done it. I was put here to stop him if he did this. You might not have made it out alive." I smiled.

"I had no doubts that I'd make it out alive, Kakashi. If it worked on the rasengan, why not the chidori?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, once again surprised.

"I'm proud of you. You come a long way, as a ninja and a person. You could've killed him today, but you didn't. You also could have let me stop the fight, but you continued. We'll get hell for it later, but I'm proud of you all the same." I could feel three people rushing towards us, and I blushed, touched at his comments.

"Thanks for defending my choice, Kakashi. I really appreciate that you gave me this chance." Surprising myself I turned and gave my startled sensei a hug, blushing profusely. I let go of him after a second and stood up shakily, having finished healing myself but now very low on energy. I could probably get by until bedtime, and then I would just pass out for a couple days. Yeah, that'd be good. I'd sleep somewhere other than my bedroom so that I couldn't be bothered by pesky midnight visitors.

"Sakura!" I watched as three nin approached us, one being a comically surprised looking kyuubi container, one being a horrified blond woman that wouldn't even look at me over Sasuke, and the last being a spaced out black haired girl, her own blue eyes gazing somewhere distant that I couldn't see. I smiled and walked up to Naruto, flicking him on the nose.

"Told you so." I ignored his sputtering and tapped Ino on the shoulder, shivering in the cold. How long had we been out here, soaking wet? She looked up from tending Sasuke and I handed her the only vial of antiserum I had bothered to make. She took it, visibly confused.

"Inject it into the muscle at the base of his neck in half an hour. He'll snap out of it then, just don't give it to him too early or it'll work with the stuff in his system already and he'll overdose." She nodded and I turned away from the group, starting my walk in the general direction of where I had left my shoes. A thought struck me before I had gotten very far and I stopped, returning to the others. When the water dragon crashed back down, the resulting waves had probably washed my shoes into the lake, and even if they weren't still in the water, they wouldn't likely be where I left them. I wouldn't be able to find them in the dark and rain like this, soaked and unable to see more than a few feet from my nose. Accepting the loss, I decided that I'd come back and look for them sometime when it was clearer out. If I was lucky they were at least still within this enclosure.

"Sakura." I faced Naruto, a small sneeze escaping me as I hugged my arms around my figure, trying to keep warm. He still looked surprised, but it wasn't as pronounced now, it being mostly replaced by a mixture of concern and pride.

"How did you do it? You beat Sasuke. Everyone's going to be so surprised!" His excitement was returning, and it was sort of contagious. I felt proud of myself for what I had done, and even though she'd be mad, I knew Tsunade would be too. Ino left with the other medic and Sasuke in tow, leaving just Kakashi with us. He noticed me shaking and gently took my arm.

"Naruto, go tell Tsunade that Sakura won her match, and that I'll be there to report in detail after I get her home." His voice was stern and I blushed bright red as Naruto protested.

"Go report yourself, Kakashi! Sakura's got a party to attend!" Naruto took my other hand and tugged on it. Immediately wary of the game I was about to be the center of, I shook them both off.

"Naruto, you can come get me for the party later, I'm going to go home right now so that I don't get sick. You both should get inside yourselves and get into some dry clothes. Thanks again, Kakashi." I spared the chakra I needed and transported myself outside my house, unable to go inside because of the seals I had placed on every window to keep them from being opened by jutsu. I fought the dizziness again but in the state I was in, I couldn't hold it off very well. I fell to my knees on the wet pavement of my doorstep, one hand to my head and struggling not to throw up. I started when I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, right against my neck, and turned to see who I hadn't been able to sense beforehand.

"Kakashi... what are you doing here, I thought you had to report to Tsunade?" He helped me to my feet and I opened the door to the house, offering him an invitation in. He didn't take it.

"I just came to make sure you got home okay. You're not really in any state to be doing that, honestly. Don't push yourself too hard, and get some rest. I'll see you later, Sakura-chan." He waved and disappeared again, leaving me alone to contemplate how good he looked soaked wet.


	13. 12

-12-

I looked at the clock on the wall groggily as, once again, I was woken by knocking. I must have fallen asleep on the couch reading earlier, but that didn't mean that I necessarily needed, or wanted, to be woken up. Whoever was on the other side of my door was being unnaturally persistent and the wood seemed about to cave under the incessant pounding. Inwardly I wondered if this was going to become a trend, waking me up just as I had fallen asleep, and tried to shake away that sleepy feeling as I got up to go answer my guest.

"Hey! What... are you wearing?" I yawned as I backed up and let my former rival in. I should've known nobody would leave me alone about the damn party.

"They're called pajamas, Miss Piggy. You woke me up." I rubbed my face vigorously, the drowsy sensation being particularly insistent on clinging to me. I watched her take off her raincoat and shoes, putting her umbrella in the corner. She huffed as she placed her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes at her juvenile behavior and stretched my stiff muscles. I couldn't believe how sore I was. Damned couch.

"Go get dressed, we're all waiting for you! It's your birthday, you shouldn't be sleeping!" I groaned, wondering if she just conveniently forgot about the beating I had taken earlier. I didn't want to go to whatever it was she had planned. I traipsed back into the living room, hiding away the little pink novel before she caught sight of it.

"I don't have anything to wear, and I'm exhausted. Can't we take a rain check on this?" I was fully aware of the joke I had made, as it was indeed still raining cats and dogs outside. She scoffed, grabbing my hand and dragging me back to me bedroom. My energy was slowly returning, but I was still too tired to fight her off.

"Nonsense! We'll get you looking so hot that you'll almost be able to compete with me!" I shrugged, running my fingers through my hair and fluffing it out. Falling asleep on the couch while my hair was wet was probably the worst thing I could've done for it. It was all tangled and kinked in every which way on the side I had been dozing on. Once we got to the bedroom, Ino sat me down on the bed and I lay myself down, my arm covering my eyes against the light she had turned on. I heard her open the closet door, then a brief pause before she stepped into the closet itself. I heard her physically check every shelf, finally tossing something on me. Confused, as there shouldn't have been anything but underwear in there, I took a look at what was lightly resting on my stomach.

"Where you robbed? You have nothing to wear!" I sat up, realizing that she had tossed me the present Kimiko had given me. I hadn't felt right opening it before my birthday, and had put it up on the shelf. I guess I must have forgotten about it in the excitement of this morning. Gently, I started to rip the pink tissue away from the package contents.

"I told you, didn't I? When I came back, almost none of my old clothes fit properly." She smacked her forehead, and I started to rip through the layers of tissue underneath the pink layer. Whatever was in here, she had wrapped it well.

"So what? You haven't grown that much, I bet you decided a shirt or skirt didn't fit if it was even a little bit tight! Where did you put them, something tight would be great tonigh-" She stopped and stared as I pulled out and held up the package contents. It was a beautifully detailed strapless dress, dark green with a golden butterfly swarm flying up what would be my left hand side, trimmed in the same golden hue. Reaching back in the package, I pulled out a matching green and gold pair of ballet style flats, a single butterfly on the toe of each one. I couldn't say anything. Kimiko had always been generous with my birthday gifts, but this one topped them all... it was absolutely gorgeous. Ino took the dress from my hands, her mouth agape, but she recovered quickly as she recognized her opportunity.

"Sexy. Let's get you ready then." I didn't fight back as she put down the dress gently and took me by the arm again, dragging me to the bathroom to get ready. I swatted her away so that I could take a shower, but as soon as I was out, she was right there again, not even letting me get dried off properly. First thing she did was sit me down on the bathroom counter and started playing with my hair. It seemed to take forever, but she finally decided how she wanted it done, and the finished style was pretty simple looking really. She had just decided on a sleek ponytail, with a chunk of hair wrapped around the elastic and pinned underneath where it couldn't be seen. Once finished with my hair for good, she turned me around to face her and took her make-up kit out of her bag, probably realizing that I had none of my own. She was right, the only thing I had that counted as a cosmetic was my nail polish, which I applied religiously. It was one of the few vices I allowed myself consistently. She decided aloud that since my eyes already matched the dress nicely, we'd just make me match a bit more. She used a golden color on my eyelids and a clear mascara, with just a hint of peachy pink lipstick and cheek color. Stepping back, she declared me perfect, and I took a second to admire the effect in the mirror. As unenthusiastic as I had been earlier, now that I had a little energy back and I saw myself like this, excitement started to bubble up in the pit of my stomach. I hadn't looked so girly since my fifteenth birthday party. Wow, six years exactly. I looked from Ino to my own reflection and wondered how it could be the same woman who did both faces. While mine was subtle and shimmery, hers was brazen and bold. Ice blue eyeshadow that matched her eyes almost perfectly, and black mascara, with no blush and mauve lipstick, of which the shade matched the shred of fabric stretched across her chest amazingly. To top it off, she was wearing extremely tight and faded jean cutoffs, with a shirt of violet mesh to make her seem a bit more covered. Right down to the strappy purple sandals and matching pedicure, she looked... well, even I wouldn't dress like that if I was going out in public.

Grabbing me by the wrist again, she dragged me back to my room again and I wrapped my towel more tightly around myself. I went to the closet and grabbed some fresh undergarments, but when Ino took a glance, she shook her head fiercely at me.

"Grab a more appropriate pair of underwear, Sakura. Honestly, you don't want everyone to see them, just the guy you're going home with tonight!" Blushing as my head filled with entirely inappropriate but also extremely pleasant thoughts, I took a look at the dress to see what she meant. She was right, of course, as I quickly found out. There was a very long slit it either side of the skirt, ending in small golden butterfly ornaments, of which I didn't doubt, knowing Kimiko, that they were probably real. Reevaluating my decision, I went back to the closet and picked out a more accommodating pair of panties, a cute white pair. I put them on and wrapped up my chest, a little lower than normal, because the cut of the dress wouldn't allow me to wrap them normally. After checking my back in the mirror to check that my ink was covered, I slipped myself into the dress, and Ino did up the laces that would hold the dress closed, slipping in a snide remark about my preferred style of undergarment, which I ignored.

Once we were done, I actually admired myself in the mirror, gently running my hands down my body to feel the silken material of the garment. The dress was tight, and didn't leave very much to the imagination. It showed my shoulders nicely with just a bit of cleavage, an amazing feat I hadn't thought possible, indeed I hadn't thought I had enough to create any at all. It did show an awful lot of leg, the slits going all the way up to the point where my legs bent at the hip, and the skirt itself resting several inches above the knee. The choker that had come with it and Ino had discovered in one of the shoes, was made of the same patterned green fabric as the dress itself and was clasped by an ornament matching the ones gracing either side of my hips. Slipping on my shoes, I wished for the first time that my arms and legs weren't so visibly scarred. It normally didn't matter, but against this more feminine look I was sporting, they kind of looked unsightly.

"Well, you're ready, let's go! Man, am I jealous, he won't be able to take his eyes off you tonight you lucky brat!" I smirked. The only person I wanted to be unable to tear his eyes away from me wouldn't likely even be there. Besides, nobody would be looking at me next to my sexier friend.

As we got ready to go out in the rain, Ino pulled out a pink length of cloth from her coat pocket. Before I could quite identify it, she had stepped behind me and draped it over my eyes, tying it tight enough that I couldn't see, but no so m,uch that she ruined all her hard work. I sighed. Such childish antics from someone who should, in all honesty, be past it. Nonetheless, I submitted to being blindfolded, my excitement only growing as I handed Ino my key long enough to lock up, and tucking it into my wraps as she handed it back, the dress leaving me no place else to put it. I didn't want to leave it in my coat, as I had a feeling my coat would likely be unattended for a good portion of the evening.

"It's about time. What the hell took you so long, I thought she was supposed to be expecting us? Hey there Sakura, Happy Birthday, both from me and the boys. Especially Kankuro." I felt her hug me and then step back, gently laying a hand on my shoulder to guide me as me walked. Ino grabbed my wrist gently on my other side, and I made sure to focus some chakra to my feet as we walked, to avoid getting my shoes wet and muddy.

"Aw, that's sweet of all of you. Give my love to the boys when you go back, okay Temari-chan? My farewell was kind of short when I left last, I don't even think I was able to find Kankuro to say goodbye at all." The golden-blond woman laughed, patting my shoulder gently. I had been going to see the three about as often as I had seen Kimiko and the girls, about three times a year. Ino huffed loudly in exasperation.

"I know, Naruto told us she'd be expecting us, but no! She was in her pj's! I woke her up! To make it worse, she had nothing to wear, literally an empty closet, and hadn't showered yet!" I thought back and vaguely remembered telling him to come get me. That was a far cry from sending Ino, and if he actually had come, I might've actually been able to talk him into letting me sleep. Temari was laughing even harder now.

"She's not naked under that raincoat, is she? You do that with trench coats, Ino." I felt Ino reach across my back and smack the giggling woman on my other side.

"Of course not! If I had to, I would've dragged her in those ridiculous pink tatters she calls pajamas!" I rolled my eyes behind their bindings.

"I'd like to have seen you try, Ino-piggy. I would've hauled your ass back out the door and locked the damned thing behind you." Naruto was one thing, but I didn't need everyone seeing me in those ratty old things.

"Ooh, I have no doubt she would have, too. You should've seen her the one morning Kankuro walked in on her sleeping! You really didn't need to be so hard on him, he didn't know you were staying there, you know." I blushed at the memory. That was ages ago, back when I still had some shred of modesty to me.

"You really didn't have to bring that up. I healed him up alright afterwards, didn't I?" The woman just started laughing loudly again. She had found it hilarious at the time too, especially after Gaara had come across us and got an eyeful too. I couldn't look him in the face for the rest of that visit.

"Yeah, and it's probably a good thing too, those injuries were just nasty. Hey, speaking of injuries, I was watching the fight earlier! You did awesome, I mean, it's a miracle you're still standing, all things considered. Great job!" I smiled happily, proud of receiving praise from such an accomplished woman. Ino huffed loudly again.

"She only won because she poisoned him, how underhanded do you have to be? Sasuke-kun would never be beaten by such a weakling normally." She sounded miffed and I just shook my head. I wondered if she had actually seen any of the fight itself, despite being on standby for the entire thing. Temari's hand squeezed my shoulder gently.

"What are you talking about, Ino? Weren't you the emergency medic? You should've seen the fight yourself. She didn't even bother with the poison until the very end, she would have beaten him on her own, because he was barely standing even before he initiated his chidori! He definitely wouldn't have lasted after she stopped it!" Temari made me blush in embarrassment and Ino's grip tightened on my arm.

"He used it? Why? He wouldn't... not without a good reason..." Ino trailed off into silence, and I wondered if she still had a crush on him.

"What can I say? He's a competitive guy, and he was losing. Badly. Besides, he's kinda a dick, in case you hadn't noticed." My own tone surprised me, but Ino's quick defense surprised me almost as much.

"No! He's not like that! He wouldn't use something so powerful unless he had no choice! Besides, I know you're lying, nobody's ever blocked the chidori before, stupid." Yup, she still liked him.

"Guess I'm just nobody then, eh Temari-chan? But seriously, you're right. He didn't have a choice. Whether it was to actually kill me or to try to scare me into forfeiting, it was his last-ditch attempt at victory. It didn't work obviously, because I'm still here and I finished the match in one piece, but he tried. Although, I really have to ask this. What's so bad about using a drug to your advantage? It's a tool, like a kunai, a senbon, a shuriken. It's not like I actually poisoned him." I may have sounded a bit defensive myself, but I was right.

"You didn't? What did you do then? I saw him collapse and you carry him off to solid ground, presumably so that he wouldn't drown. Has he recovered already?" Temari actually sounded surprised and I proceeded to explain about the drug and its effects, and how it was completely out of your system in twenty minutes. The dose I had given Sasuke would've lasted only three hours If I had let it go, but I didn't. I explained about the antiserum too, which in actuality didn't do anything about the drug, just it's effects. Like a pill that treated the hangover rather than the drunken stupor.

"So in short, Sasuke should be just fine, save for his injuries, unless Ino didn't listen to me and gave him the antiserum too early." I felt her manicure dig into my wrist painfully, and I swatted her.

"You didn't, did you?" If she had, I would've heard about it by now, right?

"Of course not. I know you want him dead about as much as I do, so I trusted your instructions." I snorted with laughter and felt both hands on me twitch, probably in surprise.

"You don't think I still like him, do you? What would honestly make you think that I wouldn't hesitate to kill him after he displayed such an obvious attempt to do so to me? I should've let him go and watched him drown, like he tried to for me. A dog's death for a dog, if you get me. I just know the people I actually care for wouldn't want me to become a murderer because of him." Ino's nails dug in all the more painfully, her hand shaking.

"You're right, we don't want you to become a murderer. The only blood on your hands should be the blood of your enemies, not your comrades. But... what do you mean, 'like he tried to do for me'? You only went under once, and that was willingly." Temari was encouraging me, but she was also confused. Ino was just silent.

"I was hit by that drug on a recent mission, which is where I acquired a sample of it to recreate for my own personal use. Anyway, I got hit because Sasuke picked an inopportune time to interfere, and we were on grounds much like today's fight, all water. When I collapsed, if my team leader hadn't have been there, I would've drowned without Sasuke doing a damn thing about it." Now even Temari was silent. the only sound for a while after being the rain pounding on the ground around us and Temari's footsteps. Ino was likely using chakra to keep her shoes dry too. Finally, Temari spoke again.

"So you drugging him was poetic justice?" I grinned and nodded as we stopped walking.

"Yeah, I was in the hospital for hours because of that stupid drug, so this was just my way of getting revenge on him. I wonder what he thought, feeling completely helpless like that." I felt her move her hand across my shoulders to the other side and pull me towards her in a sideways hug.

"That's the way! Whatever you're given, just dish it right back!" I giggled at her enthusiasm, but was worried at the same time by Ino's silence.

"You okay, Piggy-chan?" I felt her hand twitch, her sharp nails digging back into my wrist momentarily.

"I'm just fine, Sakura. We're here though, so why don't we just drop this and go have some fun?" I nodded, gently patting the pale blonde's arm as I heard her open the door and we stepped inside. I could hear people bustling everywhere, and was assaulted by dozens of different chakra signatures as she guided me through the place and out another door. I cringed at the horrible music playing in this room, but since it seemed like she had taken me to a bar, I figured it was just a jukebox. I was dragged a bit farther and my was taken off.

"Happy Birthday!" Before my eyes even had time to adjust to the dim light in the room, I was hugged by both of the girl friends of mine that hadn't come to pick me up, and I hugged them both back tightly with a bright smile on. I had missed them almost as much as I had missed my guys. Something about the hug was a bit off, and I discovered exactly what it was when they both stepped back, wearing matching dresses, one in purple and the other in pink.

"Wow, congratulations! You two look gorgeous!" They did. It was very obvious that they were both pregnant and very close to their due dates, but they looked more beautiful now than I had ever seen them before. The shorter woman blushed, still as shy as ever it appeared, while the taller brunette put her hands on her hands and nodded confidently, a proud smirk on her face. The four girls together took me and led me to a set of tables that had been shoved together with a booth in the back, and was haphazardly seating what looked like all three of our rookie teams and Tenten's team, Sasuke included, which was a miracle in itself, in the condition I had left him. Tsunade must have tended him personally, because he looked like he was just fine now.

I couldn't believe that everyone had come to my birthday, because none of my birthday parties, ever, had had everyone there. People like Shino, Chouji and Neji, I had never really considered friends, even though I had known them for a long time. Catching sight of us, Naruto alerted everyone else and in a very Narutoesque gesture, amid the applause and yelling of happy birthday at me, he hopped up onto and then over the table, running at us and sweeping a very happy Hinata off of her feet, immediately nuzzling into her neck as she turned the cutest shade of pink ever. I smiled, happy that she had managed to snag her dream guy and momentarily noticed matching silver rings on the couples' left hands before I myself no longer had my feet on the ground. Turning red, I looked to see Sasuke flashing me an unusually open and happy smile, which was incredibly off putting. I didn't exactly know how to react, and everyone was staring.

"Um, can you put me down please, Sasuke?" He did so, but not before nuzzling into my neck and giving me a kiss on the cheek as sweetly as can be. As soon as my feet were once again planted firmly on the warped floorboards, I was hurriedly whisked away by a jealous-looking Ino, even as I tried to wrap my head around what had just happened. She sat me down in the very center of the booth, where Sasuke took his place next to me, much to her visible chagrin. Naruto sat down next to me on my other side, giving me a quick hug and congratulations as Hinata slid onto the seat next to him, curling into his arms like a cuddly kitten. Temari took the spot next to Sasuke and Shikamaru, but Ino, feeling slighted, sat up on the table between her teammate and his lover, her feet dangling in the air between them. They didn't seem to care as Shikamaru leaned over and whispered something in the golden-blonde's ear before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. Tenten had gone to where Neji and Lee were seated and hopped up onto Neji's lap, giving him a sweet peck on the forehead as he rested his hand on her belly. I couldn't help a little twinge of jealousy overcome me as I watched my friends with their significant others and contemplate the fact that I would never be so happy.

For the next little while I carried on conversation with my friends and listened when Temari and Naruto started telling everyone about my fight earlier, but the odd occurrence earlier caused me to constantly keep an eye on Sasuke. I watched as he bluntly refused every time Ino asked him to dance, and turned him down myself when he decided to ask me.

"No, thank you. I don't want to dance." I was in the middle of a conversation with Temari and Shikamaru about what they were going to do about their relationship, whether Temari would come to Konoha to live, or Shikamaru would go back with her to the Sand village, and something drew my attention to the fact that I was still wearing my raincoat, and it was hot in here.

As I stood up, I took off my coat and turned to hang it on the back of our booth, kneeling on the cheap vinyl seat and my ears perked up. The conversations behind me had stopped, and I heard an abbreviated breath being drawn in on either side of me. I alternately looked at Naruto, who had his eyes averted and a steady blush spreading over his face as he stared at the ground, and then at Sasuke, his eyes skimming between the bare leg right next to him and then farther up to my chest and shoulders, undecided on where to fix his gaze. I turned back forward in my seat only to find much of the same reactions dispersed among the rest of the males in attendance, along with some wandering eyes belonging to males around the room not actually associated with us. The girls all wore remarkably similar expressions, proud approval with just a hint of annoyance as two of of the four smacked the men that they were with to divert their attention back to where it belonged, and Hinata coughed gently to bring Naruto's eyes up off of the floor. Ino actually looked mostly jealous, noticing that Sasuke's gaze no longer even darted to her at all when she spoke to him. As I sat back down, blushing slightly at the catcalls that had picked up at the other end of the table, my hand was taken by the dark-haired man sitting next to me and he pulled me towards him gently, kissing my fingertips softly.

"You look gorgeous tonight. Please dance with me, Sakura. I'm sorry for the way I've acted, but you did say we were even, you know." He had pulled me close enough to whisper these last words in my ear, and I blushed again as I pulled away a bit.

"I know what I said, Sasuke. Whatever you think I meant, however, I didn't mean that I still had feelings for you, and pressing for them won't help." Everyone had stopped staring and resumed their conversations, probably sensing that this wasn't something any of them wanted to get involved with. Sasuke put a hand up and lifted my chin with his index finger and thumb, forcing me to look him in the eye. There, I saw nothing but sadness and regret as he asked me a question I couldn't possibly answer fully.

"Why have you changed so much? You used to be such a sweet girl, you never hated me before." I bit my lip and looked away from him, feeling sort of guilty.

"I don't hate you, I just don't have a crush on you anymore. I'm a different person now, my experiences have changed me. I like to think that it's not entirely a bad thing." I felt him lift my chin once more, but I couldn't bring myself to pull away.

"Why did you pick me? What did you hope to accomplish today?" I smiled, taking his hand away from my face and resting it on the table, my own on top of it.

"Resolution of old problems, Sasuke. When I said we were even, I meant more than you think I did." It wasn't entirely the truth, but it was part of it. He looked thoroughly confused.

"What problems?" I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table as I shifted and knelt on the bench, my feet curled up under me.

"Like it or not, you broke my heart when you left, Sasuke, and even if it was mended later, that sort of thing stays with you. I couldn't forgive you until I got even, if that makes any sense." Again, it was only partly the truth, but I couldn't tell him that I had more doubts about defeating Naruto or Kakashi than I did him. Not now, while he looked like a lost puppy. The regret only deepened in his eyes as he heard my answer, and he took my hand again.

"I told you I was sorry, Sakura. I don't know how to apologize any more than that, and I want you to forgive me so badly. I love you." I sat back quickly, unsure that I had heard his last words right, they had been spoken so quietly. If I did, they were the last words I would have ever expected to come from him. He still had my hand in his, gently running his thumb along the scar bisecting my palm as he stared at the seat between us. Or he could've been staring at my leg, impossible to tell for sure.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I've forgiven you, but all we can be is comrades, and friends. My heart belongs to someone else now, and has for a long time." The one in receipt of my affections had no idea, of course. He turned my hand over and pressed his lips to it, looking ultimately defeated at my admission and confirming that I had indeed heard what I thought I had.

"Kakashi, right?" I stared, open mouthed, though he couldn't see. Was I that obvious, or had he just guessed?

"What would make you think that?" A hollow laugh escaped his parted lips still pressed to my hand.

"Our mission in the land of Flowers, remember? Our target turned into Kakashi to trap you." I relaxed slightly, dredging up the excuse I had already concocted in the event that either of them would question that particular event.

"Well, he knew that my teammates were nearby, and probably thought he's have a better shot if he looked like someone I trusted. After the stunt you pulled in the forest, that really only left Kakashi, right?" I shrugged, forcing my body language to try and dissuade him from the fact that i was lying through my teeth. He nodded, possibly seeing my point, and I let out my breath softly.

"Is it Jiraiya then? There have been rumors going around that you've been doing more than training and traveling with the old pervert." I couldn't help but laugh, momentarily attracting the attention of my remaining guests and visibly startling Sasuke.

"No, it's not Jiraiya. God, some people have no life, honestly. I'd trust the man with my life, but no way in hell would I trust him with my heart. Or my body, for that matter." Jiraiya couldn't be in a faithful relationship to save his life. Sasuke did look visibly relieved at my words, but a second later became somber again.

"His age doesn't bother you? He's old enough to be your father." Actually, he was older than my father would be, if he were alive. I shrugged, finding my ponytail and twisting it around my fingers.

"Should it? What's the point in worrying about age, when in our line of work our age largely depends on our luck? I could die on the next mission I'm sent on, as could you, or Jiraiya. Or we could all live until time overtakes us. Age has no meaning to a shinobi, Sasuke, you should know that." He nodded and sat back in his seat, releasing my hand. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that that particular conversation was over. Once again, I had probably said too much.

"Well said, beautiful. Say, how would the birthday girl like to dance with the hottest guy in town?" I cringed, recognizing the voice from my days in the hospital and realizing that some things really never did change. I turned to smirk at the senbon-chewing jounin leaning over the side of the booth where Naruto and Hinata had been sitting, but no longer were.

"You know, I would, but it would seem that he hasn't extended me an invitation, and considering what he's like, I honestly doubt he will. Nice try though." I turned back towards the table, but he hopped over the back of the booth, putting an arm around my shoulder as he sat down. I leaned away, grabbing his hand with just enough chakra for it to hurt without breaking the bones, lifted it back around my shoulders and then let go.

"Aw, such a pretty girl shouldn't be without a date on her birthday. Come for a dance, I promise you'll enjoy my company tonight." He was leaning too close and I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I pushed him away, standing up from my seat. I shuddered as his eyes lingered on the butterflies at my hips.

"I'm not interested, got it? Go bother someone who'll tolerate it." I turned sideways to inch past him out of the booth but stopped short when I felt his hands making their way up my bare thighs. I grabbed them both and leaned forward, putting one foot up on the seat squarely between his legs. I squeezed both of his hands, this time not letting go right away. I glared at him as the pain flashed across his face.

"What did I just say? I thought I taught you this lesson years ago when you had enough gall to feel me up during your physical. Or is your memory so bad that I have to repeat the lesson?" I squeezed harder, slowly lifting his hands away from my skin.

"Seems like you picked the wrong woman to hit on tonight, Genma. She's got a temper." I let go of his hands, my breath catching as I looked towards the highly amused voice. The silver haired jounin was standing behind Genma, leaning with both elbows resting on the back of the booth as his friend clenched his fists, evaluating the damage. I put my foot back down on the ground, blushing just slightly at the look I was getting from both of the older men before me.

"Man, Kakashi, your girl's got one hell of a grip." My breath caught again and I stepped out from the booth to allow him room to move. He got up and hopped back over the seat, still gingerly moving his fingers.

"I know. I'd ask for a dance myself, but I'm not enough of a masochist to submit myself to such punishment willingly." I blushed brightly, even though I knew he was joking.

"Hey, you know better than that. I reserve punishment for those who piss me off, Kakashi. Tonight it just happened to be some touchy-feely lech that doesn't understand the meaning of the word no." I glared pointedly at Genma and he smirked back at me. He was proud of his reputation, to say the least. Kakashi held an expression of mock surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry then. Would you honor your old sensei with a dance?" Genma's jaw dropped, yet he managed to keep that stupid senbon from falling on the ground as I bit my lip and smiled impishly.

"You're not old, Kakashi, and yes, I'd love to dance with you." He raised an eyebrow at me and I wondered just how long he had been around watching me, as I hadn't just turned down Sasuke and Genma, I had turned down multiple invitations from both Lee and Kiba, along with one from Shino, of all people. He held a hand out to me and I took it, unable to imagine my luck. Even if he had been joking and not expecting me to accept, he couldn't exactly retract the offer now that I had. As we stepped out onto the floor a slower song started, one that sounded vaguely familiar, and he pulled me close, his free hand on my hip, just above the butterfly. I rested my hand on his arm and inwardly thanked Kimiko for the present once again.

"So much for not pushing yourself. You should be at home, getting your rest." I smiled, shaking my head as I pulled myself closer to him. His hand moved from my hip around to my lower back, and I became aware of at least one person staring at me as my neck started prickling gently.

"I was kind of dragged here against my will. Ino can be amazingly persuasive when she wants to be." I let go of his arm and he turned me, pulling me flush against his chest and I felt him smile through his mask against my shoulder just before he spun me out, then drew me back in, chest to chest with him. I fought back the butterflies and mental imagery as his hand found its way back to the small of my back.

"I see. Well, you certainly look good for someone who was dragged here unwillingly." I closed my eyes, willing myself not to blush while he was so blatantly teasing me.

"Yeah, If it weren't for Kimiko, I would've ended up here in my ratty pink pajamas. Gotta thank her for sparing my friends that particular sight, although I'm sure in her head I'm wearing this for her, the perv." I heard him chuckle as he turned me again, my shoulders pressed tightly to his chest. I swallowed gently, trying to make the mental imagery go back to being white noise, like it normally was, but found I couldn't as I caught a hint of his breath on the back of my neck.

"She likes girls? I had wondered what that was about, when we were leaving." I giggled softly as he spun me out again, and put my hand up on his shoulder when he pulled me back.

"Yes, she's into girls. She's been trying to get a kiss from me since the day I turned eighteen. Finally I told her she could have one if she ever managed to beat me in a spar. She gave up after the first time I handed her ass to her." I grinned, remembering how badly I had actually beaten her. Even back then, the differences in our skill levels were like the difference in skill between the two of us dancing right now.

"You actually agreed? Wow, I had no idea you swung that way. Although, come to think of it, Sasuke is rather girlish looking, isn't he?" I smacked him lightly and he chuckled. He was teasing me again.

"Why not take a bet when you can't lose? I wasn't about to waste my first kiss on her." I stuck my tongue out at him playfully, and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your first kiss? Somehow I doubt that." I rolled my eyes at him as the song changed, yet we kept dancing.

"What can I say? I can't prove that I've never been kissed. If you don't take me at my word, that's your decision." He leaned closer, his hand on my back pulling me closer.

"I was kidding, Sakura-chan. I pity the man who would try and steal a kiss from you." I smiled wryly, peering up at him.

"Is that because I'm so unappealing that no man would want to kiss me?" I stuck my tongue out when he laughed at my suggestion.

"No, I was referring more to the humorous show you put on with Genma. Not often do girls have that particular reaction to his advances. In fact, I think the last was Tsunade." I giggled, knowing that she wouldn't have been nearly as gentle as I was.

"By the way, who were you referring to?" Confused, I glanced up questioningly at him and he met my gaze with one of curiosity before he decided to elaborate.

"Who's the most handsome guy in town, the one you doubted would extend you an invitation to dance?" I blushed, realizing as he spun my back to him that I had, in fact, been proven wrong, and we continued our dance without him spinning me out yet.

"Didn't you used to complain that I wouldn't shut up about Sasuke? Now you're poking your nose into my love life of your own accord. Should I be worried or thrilled at the unprecedented interest?" I may have avoided the question, but of course I wasn't about to tell him that I was referring to him when I shot Genma down. He spun me out again, this time spinning me a second time just before his hand found my side again and slowly slipped down to my hip, where I felt his finger trace along the shape of the butterfly there.

"Is it wrong to be interested in a friend's interests? How about if I ask questions and you answer them, is that okay? I'll try to guess." I smirked, knowing I could probably dodge the questions if they became too difficult to answer vaguely.

"Only yes or no questions, and I won't answer if I feel the question is too specific, okay?" He surprised me when he dipped me down to the floor and I clung to his shoulder while I felt my ponytail brush the wood of the floor. He pulled me back up with an unusual smile, one I hadn't seen before, and I could feel my face turn pink again. The dance being over, we left the floor and pulled up a couple of chairs at an empty table. I took a peek back at my friends, and only one of them seemed to really care that I was gone, and I could tell he was staring at me even without looking, as the prickling hadn't ceased.

"So, is he a shinobi?" I rolled my eyes and wondered how he could keep a straight face as he asked that.

"Of course he is. What kind of question was that?" I sat back in my chair and relaxed, crossing one knee over the other and gently kicked the foot that dangled to the music.

"Just checking. Your answers might draw me to the wrong conclusion if you did like a civilian. Is he your age?" I debated about answering that, but decided there wouldn't be any harm in it and shook my head, my grin spreading wider as i watched him think.

"He is from this village, right? Because I can't guess if I don't know him." I giggled.

"Of course he's from this village. I wouldn't really care for a guy I'd have to leave my village to be with." I rested on hand on the table, tracing my long nails along the gouges in the wood as I watched him watching me.

"Is he younger than you?" I looked at him, frowning in distaste.

"You know how creepy of a thought that is? I left when I was fifteen. That would mean I would have had a crush on one of the snot-nosed little brats from the year below us, or worse, Konohamaru's year. That's just pitiful. No, he's not younger than me." He laughed and I shuddered.

"So that means he's older than you. Is it Neji or Lee?" I shook my head vigorously, shuddering at the thought of what kind of brain damage I would have had to sustain to have a crush on Lee. I watched him let out a breath in relief.

"That's good. I was afraid you had lost it while you were away. Is he more than five years older than you?" I nodded and sat forward, elbows on the table, legs kicking back and forth underneath it.

"Is he more than 10 years older than you?" I nodded again, but wondered at the wisdom of answering any more age questions.

"Is he a jounin?" I thought about it. Pretty safe question, I suppose. I nodded again, and I heard his foot start tapping under the table.

"Okay, guess that out rules the Jiraiya rumor. Is he a sensei at the academy?" I turned red, embarrassed that he had heard that rumor too, and shook my head no. It did explain why he had acted so oddly when I threw out his name in response to Kimiko's stupid question on our mission though. He leaned back in his chair, tipping it onto two feet as his hands found their way to his pockets. Momentarily I realized that he was without his Icha Icha book, and I wondered why, before a hand grabbed my upper arm gently. Startled, I turned towards the one trying to get my attention and realized that my neck was no longer prickling. It was Sasuke, looking none too thrilled.

"We figured you should open your presents before we leave. It's just us, Naruto and Hinata left now, everyone else went home." I looked back at Kakashi and beckoned for him to come too as Sasuke guided me back to our table. Indeed everyone else was gone, with a small pile of gifts left on the table. Naruto and Hinata were talking, Hinata looking very tired as she cuddled herself up to Naruto and he hugged her protectively. After We had sat down and Kakashi had taken Temari's empty seat, I took a look at the pile of gifts and blushed. I definitely hadn't expected anything this year.

With Naruto egging me on cheerfully, I picked up the first gift and started to open it. It was from Naruto and Hinata, and I gave them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek for the beautiful pair of pink jade earrings they had picked out for me. I hadn't ever thought about getting my ears pierced before, but the tiny pair of cherry blossom studs definitely gave me incentive to do so now. I was handed another package, one patterned with cute pink paw prints on the paper. I opened it, and upon seeing what was in it, Hinata immediately burst into a fit off giggling. Even though I did see what was so funny, I liked the gift too much to laugh, and thought it would look cute on me. Kiba had gotten me a black leather collar studded with steel rivets, with a set of wristbands to match. All three pieces belted up and came complete with a little ring to affix a chain to, which I thought was doubly cute. Kakashi's expression at seeing the set was mildly amusing, and both Sasuke and Naruto were laughing, obviously thinking I'd never wear them. I put them aside and Hinata handed me another box that she had dug in the pile for, one with green dragonfly print, finishing off the gifts from her team members. I opened it to find a very adorable pair of olive-tinted sunglasses inside, with silvery black rectangular half frames and a teeny flower studded on the bottom of the left lens in silvery black stones that matched the color of the frame perfectly. Hinata gushed at their cuteness as I modeled them, and even Kakashi said they suited me, which provoked a barely noticeable blush to erupt on my cheeks in response.

Tenten and Neji had given me a beautifully carved wooden box with twenty four shurikens inside laying on a bed of black velvet in teo immaculate rows. There was also a short handwritten note from Tenten folded up on top of the weapons, telling me not to try and use them before she had a chance to properly show me how. Curious, i picked one up and examined it. They were segmented, with eight razor sharp parts each, which I discovered when I accidentally sliced open my finger pulling apart the one I had in my hand. Excited, I couldn't wait to add such an interesting new weapon to my throwing arsenal among the regular shurikens, senbon and kunai, and didn't even notice that my hand had been taken until I felt pressure being put on my cut finger. Looking, I saw it wrapped in Sasuke's sweater, with his thumb pressing down on it to stop the bleeding. Cluing in, I pulled away and healed it up, thanking him with a smile for his concern.

Turning my attention back to the gifts on the table, I picked out one wrapped in deep purple from the top. Inside was a slinky black wrap top with three quarter sleeves, and a short note written in Kankuro's neat cursive, reading simply, 'You look good in black.'. I raised an eyebrow at the unlikely gift, and looked towards the table again. Under where the shirt had been resting was two more gifts, each in a lighter shade of purple than the one above it, and each a bit larger than the last, and I was amazed at the siblings' ability to coordinate with each other. I picked up and unwrapped the second, revealing a cute pair of pants made of some really soft feeling material. I loved the color, a very dark, sultry red, and the embroidery. As I lifted the garment up to examine the detailed black butterflies adorning the the back pockets and slowly spiraling down the left leg to rest among similarly detailed black flowers, a note dropped from the folds to fall into the box. I put the pants back and picked up the piece of paper, immediately recognizing Gaara's fine, spidery printing and the statement, 'While I agree that black is a flattering color for you, I think a more sanguine shade looks particularly charming.'.

Biting my lip, I wondered what kind of joke Temari and her brothers were playing on me, when Gaara's note was gently pried from my fingers and read silently by Sasuke and Kakashi. Seeing Kankuro's note crumpled lightly in Sasuke's hand combined with the looks I was getting from the pair, I turned red and picked up the last of the set of gifts, this one larger than both of the other two put together, and undoubtedly from the playful kunoichi herself. Opening it, I found, lying on top of a layer of red tissue, a pair of strappy sandals that matched the colors of the pants exactly, with black soles and alternating black and red straps. I thought they were beautiful, with just a little bit of a heel to them. As I went to put them back in the box, I stopped, feeling something under the tissue at the bottom. Putting the sandals beside me on the seat, I lifted the tissue out to inspect the items underneath. Turning bright red, I couldn't shove the tissue back down fast enough to avoid the disbelieving looks I got from the other four at the table, and silently swore to get the mastermind behind this little joke if it was the last thing I did. Under the tissue had been a set of dark red lace panties in a cut that I particularly liked, and a matching lace camisole with black detailing on both. As much as I was glad that she knew and understood my tastes, at the moment I really wished she had been more discreet with such a personal gift. Quelling the blush and ignoring the lewd comments being made about my relationship with the sand siblings, I put the shoes back and shut the box firmly, putting it with the others before moving on to another gift, one of the last ones.

This one was small, wrapped in red paper with a small white card affixed to it. An odd sense of deja vu came over me as I opened the card, and then closed it almost as quickly, putting the gift, unopened, into the pile with the ones I had already opened and eliciting a look of profound curiosity from everyone around me. Sasuke reached beside me to grab the card and I slapped his hand away, startling him visibly. The only words on the card read 'Part 2', but I didn't need Naruto in particular to recognize the handwriting and start badgering me with questions. I caught a knowing glance from Kakashi and just nodded, causing him to smile in unshielded amusement as I grabbed another small box, the third last on the table. The paper was red, with the symbol for the village stamped across it repeatedly in white. I smiled, wondering what my former mentor had gotten me. I ripped open the paper gently, and couldn't help but burst out laughing when I opened the box. It was a watch. A very cute watch, with a small, delicate silver face and a slim black leather band, but a watch nonetheless. Seeing it, Kakashi chuckled, but the joke was lost on the others, who just thought it was a pretty piece of jewelery. I set the time, three minutes after five in the evening, and wound it, strapping it on my wrist. I kind liked how delicate it made my wrist look, actually.

Sasuke handed me the next box, the smaller of the two left, and I recognized his own blunt printing on the small red card. I opened the navy blue box and almost immediately dropped it in shock, it's contents spilling out upon my lap as the box itself fell to the floor. I ventured a glance at the man beside me, completely at a loss for words. He just looked at me with a smile, leaning close and picking it up off my lap, holding it back out to me.

"As a reminder, for everything that you saved me from." I held my hand out and took it, shaking slightly. At first glance the charm on the thin silver chain had looked like a shuriken, but it had taken less than a second to realize that it was something far more meaningful to the two of us. I closed my fingers tightly over the small charm as a flood of memories rushed to the front of my mind, mostly the ones associated with the pain those small weapons, Itachi's sharingan, had caused. It had been a long time before I had fully recovered from that battle, but it was nice to have a memento of my greatest moment, even if it had come from an unexpected source. I leaned over and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, to his surprise, and put the necklace on, gently touching the unusual symbol. Naruto and Hinata commented on the thoughtful gift, but Kakashi had an odd expression on as he stared at it hanging around my neck, and I remembered that he had faced it before, and endured 72 straight hours worth of pain because of it.

Still playing with the beautiful silver charm, I pulled the last box towards me. It was rather large, and on the card were the signatures of all three members of the former team ten. I smiled and gently tore along the seam of the swirly blue and purple paper, letting it fall away as I opened the box and started to lift out the contents. I wasn't surprised that it was clothes, because Ino had always gotten me clothes for special occasions like this. What surprised me was that she had actually gotten something really... me, this time. Usually she would get me a dress, or a skirt so short I'd die of embarrassment before actually wearing it, but maybe, as a testament to how much we both had changed, she was starting to understand me. In the box was actually a few things. On top were two shirts, one a plain, sleeveless white shirt, and the other a plain long sleeved black one, both with relatively conservative necklines, completely against anything the blond would normally have picked, and I wondered if someone had went shopping with her. Under the shirts were two pairs of pants, both black. One was a simple pair of straight-legged jeans, the other a little dressier, with a white pinstripe pattern running along the length of the legs. Putting them aside with the shirts, I unearthed a black skirt, almost knee length with wide pleats, a long sleeved shirt made of very fine black mesh and a black, hooded sweater-style vest, with a soft fuzzy inside and the outline of a single white flower printed on the back. At the very bottom of the box, tucked into the corner, was a package of black hair elastics and several packages of various other hair-taming torture devices, half of which I couldn't possibly fathom a use for. Piling everything back into the box, I wished that everyone had stayed, so that I could thank them personally, and wondered why they had left, considering the time.

I consolidated all the gifts into one large bag, the one Tenten's gift had come in, and the large box that had housed Ino's generous gift, and set them on the seat as I started to clean up the mess of paper and empty boxes. I was promptly sat back down as Naruto and Sasuke got up and started cleaning up, helped by Hinata. I got up again and tried to help, but was pulled back down again by Kakashi, who had scooted over next to me on the seat, while Naruto made a comment about me not having to clean up on my birthday. Once they left, each with an armload of paper, I stretched out, kind of glad not to have to clean it up, and cast a short glance at the passive jounin sitting next to me.

"So, has he ever been your team leader?" I laughed. He wasn't wasting his time, that's for sure, but his question was incredibly vague. With my talents as a medic beginning to blossom, I was kicked around twenty or so different teams in the two and a half years while Naruto was gone and team seven disbanded. None of my team leaders had been female, so I didn't bother to think twice about answering in the affirmative. The question barely narrowed the pool of candidates, even if Tenzou-sempai was technically ANBU, and thus, already disqualified. He started tapping his foot on the floor, thinking.

"Does he have brown or blond hair?" I tapped my nails on the table in time with the music. That question eliminated all but three candidates, and I knew he'd never ever guess Gai, so that actually made it only two left.

"Too specific." He peered at me, probably a bit annoyed. He was probably thinking that he'd have to start naming them all off, one by one, but what he actually said surprised me.

"Alright, I get it. I'll concede, for now. You'll probably tell me when you want to anyway, right?" I felt a smirk creep across my face as he continued.

"Sorry about not getting you a birthday present, I was kind of at a loss as to what you'd want. Seems I was alone in that, however." I giggled happily when I noticed him cast a glance at the gifts on the seat next to us.

"Hey, I got to dance with you, and it saved me from dealing with Genma. That's enough of a birthday present." He looked at me skeptically and I stood up, grabbing the bag that was starting to fall over onto the seat beside me.

"Going home?" I nodded and went to grab the box, but he beat me to it, taking it and standing up. I held out my arm to take the box from him, but he turned and left the booth.

"I'll walk you. Probably not too safe to be out alone dressed like that." Suddenly reminded of my coat, I put down my bag long enough to put it on and slide my hood up before picking it back up and following him towards the door.

"I can carry that, you know, and it's still not even night out yet. I can make it home alone." He stopped and turned quickly, causing me to walk right into him. He reached out of his pocket and flicked me on the nose, causing me to back up a step.

"Don't foil an old man's attempts to still feel useful. It's not nice." I huffed and my hands found their way to my hips, causing his gaze to momentarily gravitate there.

"You know, If you're so old, what does that make Jiraiya? You're not over the hill yet, and you're still the best shinobi on our team, Kakashi." His eye crinkled up in a smile, and he leaned forward, planting a kiss on my forehead. I blushed brightly, ducking my head to hide it as I did up my coat, when a very loud crashing noise came from the general direction of the door, and we both turned simultaneously to see what had happened.

Standing just inside the door were Naruto and Hinata, him trying to hold her up as she bent over double, clutching her stomach. Sasuke was nowhere in sight, and I rushed over to the two.

"Oh my god, are you alright, Hinata? Naruto, what happened?!" He pointed at the wall near us, where I gaped at the very large dent that had been left in the wood, and he lifted Hinata up, bridal style.

"Sasuke got really mad for some reason and freaked Hinata out, the morn. I'm going to take her to the hospital." I had laid a hand on the woman's stomach and gently ran a thread of chakra into her. The blood drained from my face at what I felt.

"You'd better hurry. They'll be in trouble if you don't, Naruto." He blanched and nodded, disappearing in a puff of red smoke. Hinata was bleeding internally, and I hoped that early intervention would be enough to save both her and their little girl as I started to rush out the door, but was halted by Kakashi's hand on my shoulder.

"What happened, Sakura?" I looked back at him impatiently.

"Walk while we talk, please." He got the hint and I started walking again, pulling my hood back up again as we left the bar. I stopped, suddenly realizing that I had no idea where we were. Clever plot of Ino's, blindfolding me so that I'd need an escort to get home. The rain had slowed to almost nothing, and I decided to take the short route, and vaulted myself up onto the nearest rooftop. I was followed by my self appointed escort, and I started towards where I could see the hospital.

"So, what's wrong? You look like someone walked over your grave." My feet gave way under me as I slipped on the wet rooftop, and i went sprawling. I got back up, glad that I had tied the bag closed before we left, and continued on, albeit a bit slower and more carefully, and surprisingly, not a word from Kakashi about my klutziness. I had scraped my right knee and shin, and they stung something fierce. I could tell without even looking that they'd need to be wrapped up well, because I didn't have the energy to spare healing them properly.

"You okay?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll live. We really need to get to that hospital though, they won't let Naruto into the delivery room with Hinata in that kind of condition, and he'll be panicking." I jumped down onto the street and broke into a dead run as the hospital came into my range of sense.

"What kind of condition is she in?" He kept up with me, keeping a bit behind me and to the side.

"She'd bleeding internally. Tsunade or whoever's on duty will order surgery to save both her and the baby, rather than risk letting her go into labor now." As we approached the hospital doors, I stopped and slowed my breathing and pulse back to normal. I didn't need Naruto to be worrying about anything other than his wife and daughter at the moment.

"Why's she bleeding?" I shook my head.

"I'm not sure, she must have sustained an injury when Sasuke frightened her. Maybe impact with a nearby table." I walked into the hospital and was immediately met by a panicky blond kyuubi shell being forcefully sat down by and extremely irate Shizune and the threat of being restrained. I hurried over to them and seeing me, Shizune bowed quickly and left to return to her duties. I pushed Naruto back down gently into his seat as he tried to get up and follow her, causing him to growl at me in anger.

"They won't let me see her, and they won't tell me what's wrong!" I sat down next to him, keeping one hand on his shoulder.

"They'll be taking her into surgery to make sure they both get out of this alright. You'll be able to see Hinata when it's over, and she's conscious enough to be coherent with you. You'll see your daughter well before before that though, shortly after she's delivered." I patted his arm gently in an effort to calm him, and he responded appropriately, relaxing slightly. Kakashi took a seat next to us.

"Are you sure she'll be okay. Sakura?" I put my arm around his shoulders and gave him a brief hug before sitting back down again.

"She'll be alright. Konoha has some of the best medics among all the hidden villages, and they'll be doing everything they can for her, okay? I'd be in there helping too, if I could." He nodded, forcing a small smile and sitting forward in his chair, his elbows on his knees and forehead resting in his hands. Satisfied that he wasn't going to cause any trouble, I took advantage of the moment of calmness, leaning forward to inspect my leg. The scrape wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't fully stopped bleeding yet, and I took off my shoe to avoid ruining it. I got up and walked over to the reception desk, attracting the attention of the young redhead behind it long enough to request a roll of gauze and some antiseptic. She pushed her glasses down her nose, looking up at me in concern.

"Would you like a medic, ma'am?" I just looked back at her in amusement, a small smile playing across my lips.

"No, I'm sure all the medics in the hospital are very busy at the moment, and I'm more than capable of dressing my wounds." She raised an eyebrow at me, but got up and beckoned for me to follow her. She led me to the first floor supply room, taking a peek at my leg and entering it. She came back a moment later, a plain square dressing in her hand in addition to what I had requested. She handed them to me with a sweet smile on her face, and I had to guess that she couldn't have been older than 13 or 14. The freckles sprinkled across her nose made her look even younger than she probably was.

"You're Haruno Sakura, aren't you? I hope that I'm able to become as great of a medic as everyone says your were when you were my age." She was extremely bubbly, and I smiled happily at her, wishing her luck in her efforts, and she darted back towards her post at the front desk. I leisurely made my way back to my seat and plopped down in a very unladylike manner, tearing open the packet with the antiseptic wipe in it. I cleaned my leg gently but thoroughly, before I placed the dressing on the worst part of the scrape and wrapped it well. I had gained a particular skill in dressing wounds without actually healing them, usually because by the end of a training session, I never had enough energy to heal all my wounds, if I wasn't training alone. Satisfied, I put my shoe back on and marveled that, through some miracle of nature, I hadn't managed to get my dress wet in my clumsiness.

We sat around in those chairs for well over an hour, both me and Kakashi trying to keep Naruto calm and quiet, which only got more and more difficult as time went by. Once we heard the unmistakable wails of a infant emanating from the direction of the surgical wing, It took both me and Kakashi to hold down the panicking blond to his seat to stop him from running in where he might cause problems.

"Naruto, settle down! Someone will come get you! You have to calm down!" I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he physically threw me back into Kakashi, knocking us both over, and in a last-ditch effort to calm him, I ended up putting him to sleep with a genjutsu. The effort literally made me feel sick to my stomach, and I could barely get up off of the floor, even when Kakashi offered to help me. With difficulty, I helped drag Naruto back to our seats, but we left him on the floor, which made for a funny picture when Shizune came back to us, obviously puzzled. Kakashi volunteered a brief explanation, and I leaned forward, my knees tucked up to my chest and my forehead resting against my knees as I waited for the nauseous feeling to go away. A bright idea struck me as Shizune revived Naruto, and I stopped her just before she left with him.

"Shizune, have you got any anti-nausea pills in your kit?" She nodded and rummaged around in it, handing me two before smiling at me and leaving with Naruto. I swallowed the pills dry and sat back in my chair, trying to quell the queasy feeling until the pills would kick in. It took almost half an hour, but I was glad once I started feeling better, and decided that I was in no shape to stay here and wait to see Hinata tonight. I got up, albeit a bit shakily, and grabbed my bag.

"I'm not going to be able to stay here until Hinata can have visitors, so I'm going home to get some rest. I'm really not in the greatest condition." I pulled the hood up on my coat and walked to the door.

"Are you going to make it?" I stretched as I stepped outside, holding the door for him. We started on the walk back to my house and I was glad that I didn't live very far away.

"I'll live. It's not far to my place." He gave me a skeptical glance and took my bag away from me.

"Hey now, I'm tired, not crippled. Give that back." I swiped at it and he pulled away, causing me to lose my balance and consequently look like an idiot as I tried to regain it. When I did, the smug smirk on his face only earned him a smack on the arm as my house came into sight. He walked me right to my door and stubbornly stayed until I had put my parcels in the house, and had promised that I wouldn't be going out again. I stuck my tongue out as I checked my watch. It was already past seven thirty, almost eight, and I told him that I was going straight to bed after I ate something. Seeming satisfied, he finally decided to leave, and gave me a small smile before telling me to find him when I was ready to start training again and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Yawning widely, I shed my coat and shoes as I shut the door, locking it behind me and making my way to the kitchen. Now that I was actually thinking about it, I realized that I was starving, having eaten only a muffin and some instant ramen earlier. At this point, even instant ramen was looking pretty appealing. I filled up the kettle and put it on to boil, fishing out a cup of ramen and some tea, and then a teacup and some chopsticks. I started pacing as I waited impatiently for my water, knowing that if I sat down and stayed still, I probably fall asleep on the spot. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a knocking at the door, and very much hoped it wouldn't be anything important.

I pulled out my ponytail as I went to answer the door, tossing the hairpins and elastic on the kitchen table as I passed it. Unlocking and opening the door, my brow furrowed in confusion when I saw him back on my doorstep. I fluffed out my hair, glad it was no longer bound in that painfully tight hairstyle as I regarded the man staring at me from out in the rain, which had picked up again. I waved him in as I heard my kettle start to screech and went back to the kitchen, tossing him a towel to dry off with.

"Forget something?" I prepared my ramen and tea, even offering him a cup, which he politely declined.

"Just figured I'd try my hand at guessing again, since you said you were going to eat before bed anyway." I rolled my eyes and like I had for breakfast, hopped up onto the counter to eat. I watched his eye widen momentarily, and leaned forward, my elbows on my bare knees. I was too tired to honestly care about what kind of view he was getting.

"So, go ahead and start guessing then." He went and stood across from me, leaning on the counter almost exactly where Naruto had this morning, his hands in his pockets.

"Does he have black hair?" I shook my head, my mouth being too occupied to talk. He didn't look surprised. In fact, I got the distinct impression that he already knew, and was just doing this to humor me.

"Is he blond?" Again, I shook my head and again, he didn't look a bit surprised. I finished my food and got up to throw out the container, returning to my tea once I had done so.

"Does he have brown eyes?" I shook my head, once again hopping up onto the counter to enjoy my tea. No point being coy anymore if he was just playing the game now.

"Does he have black eyes?" I finished my tea and rinsed the cup without moving from my spot, then sat back, my head resting on the cupboard behind me.

"Why are you doing this? If it's just to humor me, you can stop anytime." He chuckled, and I glared at him. It wasn't particularly funny.

"Alright, I'll stop. I'll even leave if you want, since you're finished eating. I just want to give you your birthday present first. Close your eyes." I kneaded my temples with my fingers for a minute, trying to relieve the headache that was starting, then sat back again, crossing my arms across my chest as I played along, closing my eyes.

I was surprised when less than a second after my eyes had shut, I heard him move across the small space between us and felt his lips press gently against my own. Startled, my eyes snapped open and I just stared at him, unable to say anything. His hand moved away from his mask, now pooled around his neck, and mirrored his other hand, both now resting on the counter on either side of my legs. The smirk on his face was unbearable in it's playfulness, and I turned bright red.

"Did I guess right?" The redness of my cheeks must have been answer enough, because he kissed me again, this time slightly more forcefully, as he found no resistance on my part. I kissed him back, my hands finding their way to the sides of his face as he pulled me closer, one hand tangled in my hair. I felt the dam on six years worth of longing and frustration crumble into nothing as our breath mingled, our hands wandered, our tongues battled for dominance. It was a fight that I didn't care who won, just that it didn't end.

It did end though, and he gently brushed my hair out of my face as we parted, smiling teasingly at me. He pulled me flush with chest and rested his head on my shoulder gently, planting a soft kiss on my neck as I played with his hair, my other arm around his waist.

"How long, Sakura?" I blushed again and giggled nervously, aware of how stupid it was going to sound once I said it out loud. He started scattering warm, open mouthed kisses along my neck and shoulder, his tongue gently teasing the tender skin there. For a split second, I got the feeling that something was wrong, and it didn't take me long to figure out what it was. He smelled wrong. He didn't smell like he should, like he normally did, and had earlier in the evening. He smelled familiar, but not like Kakashi. Moving to confirm my suspicions, I untied his forehead protector and removed it, under the guise of continuing to play with his hair. I'd know for sure when ie opened his eyes again.

"Sakura..." He was gently nipping now, and I scratched him softly for his impatience.

"I was thinking. I actually left the village to get over you, so I'd say long eno- OW!" I drew back from him as he himself stepped back, looking apologetic as I raised my fingers to the searing pain in my shoulder. Drawing my hand back into sight, I watched a trail of blood drip down my shoulder to my chest, the same blood that dotted my fingertips.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite that hard. You really surprised me, that's all." I held a hand up as he came closer, indicating that he was fine where he was. I had seen what I needed to see, and it certainly didn't make me want him any closer to me. I couldn't feel his sharingan. This wasn't Kakashi.. I hopped off the counter and started down the hall, towards my bedroom, placing pressure on the puncture wounds in my shoulder.

"It's alright, shit happens. I'll go patch it up and then I'll be right back." I walked down the hall to my room, listening to the footfalls slowly following me. I shut my door once I was safely in my room, taking one of the blank seals I hadn't needed when I had sealed up the house, and drew the appropriate wards on the paper with my right thumb, already dripping with blood. I blew on it to dry it and stuck it to the door with some of the last bit of chakra I was able to dredge up, causing myself another wave of nausea. I fought it back and took a look around my room for my kit, smacking my forehead when I realized that I had left it in the living room, beside the couch. I flinched when I heard the impostor knock gently at my door.

"Sakura, your med kit's out here. Are you okay?" I heard the door handle rattle and decided that I didn't have very many choices. I didn't know who was actually on the other side of that door, I didn't know how dangerous he might be, and I didn't know how long the seal would hold with how little I had been able to put into it. I hopped up onto my bed and pulled the seal off the window, opening it quietly. It was pouring down again, but I didn't have the luxury to worry about a little water. I hopped up to stand on the sill, jumping up to grab onto the roof and hauling myself up. I made my way across the roof quietly, blazing my way across roof after roof as carefully as I could, unable to see very far in the dark and the rain. It didn't matter. I didn't need to see, I knew where I was going intuitively, having basically staked out the place to watch his comings and goings, way back when I was 15.

Finally finding myself on the roof of his apartment complex, I accidentally yelped when I slid down the slippery slope. I tried to catch myself on the edge, but only earned myself a nasty gash running the length of my right forearm and fell all the same. I spasmed in pain and let out an involuntary gasp as I landed full force on my right side, but not on the ground, as i discovered when the force of my landing caused me to roll and I fell again, nearly screaming out when the force of my landing was again born on my right hand side. I rolled onto my chest, opening my eyes to see pavement below me. I shifted my gaze to examine what I had landed on first, and though it was difficult to tell for sure, it looked like an old pile of crates.

Ignoring my body's protestations, I got up, using my left hand and arm to prop myself up against the building as I evaluated my injuries. I couldn't put pressure on my right foot whatsoever, and my right arm hung dead at my side. While the pain was incredible, It was overshadowed by the excruciating throbbing originating at my shoulder. I tried to take a look, but couldn't see it. As I was trying to examine it, a familiar hand rested itself beside the bite, and I felt the blood drain from my face.


	14. 13

-13-

I had a sense that trouble was manifesting itself when I left her alone, and went to the memorial to try and ignore it, or maybe just forget it. Not too long after I got there, but long enough for me to get soaked wet, I had the oddest sensation that I should be at home, and this time I chose not to ignore it. Once I arrived, I was glad I hadn't. I was just in time to watch her slip off my apartment roof and solidly hit the pile of crates underneath my window before falling off of them and landing rather ungraciously on the pavement.

I was amazed at her resilience as I watched her get right back up, braced against the wall with one hand, her right foot not touching the ground and I hazarded a guess that it was sprained, or worse as I approached. Once I was close enough, I noticed four puncture marks on her left shoulder, all joined together by an odd, perforated oval-shaped bruise and I couldn't help but notice that it looked suspiciously like a bite mark as I reached out and touched her shoulder.

"What are you doing here, Sakura-chan?" She turned to face me but hopped a step backwards, hugging the wall. She eyed me in badly masked terror, scrutinizing me openly as she continued to back away from me, and I wondered what I could have done to garner such an unpleasant reaction from the young woman.

"Just decided to step out for some fresh air, you know, practice running like a rabbit from unwanted house guests, that sort of thing." Her voice was strained as she placed particular emphasis on the word 'unwanted', exhibiting clearly that she was in a lot of pain as she glared at me through one eye, the other being firmly squeezed shut . I couldn't help but worry what she meant by her cryptic statement as I took a step towards her, hand outstretched.

"You look like hell, what happened to you?" She hopped back as I stepped forward, holding her good hand up momentarily in a signal that I should stop advancing. I did so, but only because of the pain moving must have been causing her, and she obviously didn't want me near her. I could've probably gotten away with just scooping her up and taking her to Tsunade, but I was still curious as to what she was doing there in the first place.

"I fell off of a roof. What does it look like happened?" She continued backing up slowly, barely catching herself when she tried to step on her right foot, which had swollen up incredibly and turned a sick purple color, and I noticed that once again, she was barefoot. What did she have against shoes?

"Sakura, you're hurt and you're going to get sick. Let me help you to the hospital, please." I dropped the cutesy honorific, not feeling entirely comfortable applying it to her now that she wasn't a kid anymore. Pushing up my forehead protector, I opened my sharingan to better assess her injuries, which included a sprained ankle and something wrong with her shoulder which I couldn't quite identify. Her eyes widened at my scrutiny and in a complete change of attitude, she hopped a step towards me.

"No, please don't. I don't want to have to explain to Tsunade-shishou why I'm like this." Once again she worried me. What could possibly be so bad that she didn't want to tell her old mentor? I decided to gamble a bit on the situation and took another step towards her, where she reached out and grabbed onto my vest, sneezing softly.

"If I don't make you go, will you at least explain to me what happened?" She leaned forward and rested her head on my vest and I felt her shaking from cold, unsurprisingly. Even fully clothed I was nearly frozen, and here she was mostly exposed to the elements in the same green dress she had looked so provocative in earlier. Soaked wet she definitely didn't leave my eyes wanting, but right now, concern overshadowed the Icha Icha ruled portions of my mind.

"If you promise not to go behind my back about it to Tsunade-shishou, or anyone else, please?" Her voice was quiet and I could tell she was pretty desperate, as she only called Tsunade her formal title to her face or when she was under strain, and it actually sounded as though she was pleading with me. Whatever had happened, she really didn't want it to be known. It didn't matter at the moment though, because she needed to get into some dry clothes before she got really sick and I would've agreed to just about anything to get her inside right now.

"Alright, I promise. Here, can you hop up?" I turned to the side and knelt down to make it easier for her, and she looked at me in a strange mixture of confusion and pain.

"This will be easier than you trying to hop up three flights of stairs, and I doubt you want me to take you home, otherwise you would've just stayed there. Grab on." I hadn't given her a piggyback ride in years, but she took the hint and wrapped her left arm around my shoulders and leaned against my back. I already knew she wouldn't be able to grab on with her right arm and I stood up, pulling up her knees and holding them to make sure she wouldn't fall as I went to the door and let us into the building.

"Thanks again, Kakashi. I'm sorry for the way I was acting, you were only trying to help." She rested her head against the back of my neck and I wondered if she'd be able to stay awake long enough to treat herself. She was probably well beyond the point where anyone else would normally collapse, either from exhaustion, pain or a mixture of the two, but she was still fully aware and conscious. It caused me to honestly wonder what kind of training she had been subjecting herself to, to have increased her pain threshold and bypassed her own bodily limits so much.

"Oh, I'm sure you have a perfectly good explanation for your behavior, Sakura, and believe me, I'm just dying to hear it." Upon reaching my apartment I let us in, not having bothered to lock up when Genma came to bother me for my company earlier, and set Sakura down standing on the floor. While she looked around the bare living room, I went and rummaged through the clean laundry that I hadn't had a chance to put away yet and grabbed her a towel to dry off with. As the thought struck me, I grabbed her a set of my jogging pants and a sweater to change into, as I knew I didn't have anything her size and she needed to get out of that wet clothing. I went back to her, putting the clothes on the back of the armchair she was now standing beside while she took the towel from me and started to dry her stringy pink tangles with one hand.

"I'll be right back. You can make yourself at home." I waved at the chair, the only real piece of decently comfortable furniture to sit on, and went to my room to get dried off and changed myself. I had almost finished and was digging my way through my laundry to find another sweater when there came a very quiet knocking at the bedroom door.

"Um... sorry to bother you, but could I get your help? I can't get my dress undone." I went and opened the door, completely disbelieving of what I had just heard. She turned around to show me the laces on the back of her dress, holding the towel that I had given her to her shoulder. I took a closer look at the lace and realized why she needed the help.

"Did you put this dress on yourself?" She shook her head, but I already knew that she hadn't. I watched for a second as she pulled the towel away from her shoulder and put her fingers to the punctures there before drawing them back, a small trickle of blood tracing its way down her back before she replaced the towel. It puzzled me how it could possibly still be bleeding, and I noted with more than a little concern if it might possibly be poisoned as I started undoing her dress.

"Ino did them up. No doubt whatever she did was part of her plan to make sure I didn't go home alone." A knot had been tied tightly at every point where the lace intersected itself, and even with two hands it would have been difficult to undo by herself. Once I had undone them all, I handed her the lace itself and she wasted no time pushing the soaked fabric to the ground and hopping out of it, despite the fact that I was still standing right there.

"I swear I'll kill her. Or just maim her horribly. I haven't decided yet. What kind of tramp does she think I am?" I couldn't manage to avert my eyes as she hopped back over to the chair, unwrapping her chest as she did so. The contrast of the bold black markings on her back against the damp, filmy white panties she was wearing was somehow drawing my mind away from the fact that she was injured, and luring it towards the door in my mind where I kept my most impossible and forbidden fantasies locked up. The place where she was the darkest and sweetest of them, the most impossible. Where she was a temptress, innocent and playful one moment, wild and seductive the next, where she wanted me as badly as I wanted her.

"I mean, who exactly did she expect me to leave with?! Ugh, so infuriating! Why do some women act like that? They give the rest of us a bad name." She grabbed the sweater off of the chair and slid her right arm into the sleeve, with a little bit of difficulty, before slipping it over her head and pulling it down to cover herself. The neck was too big and slid down over one shoulder, and the shirt itself was almost as long as the dress she had just peeled off, though certainly no less attractive, oddly enough. She rolled up the sleeves which again, were way too long, and proceeded to reach under the shirt and slip off her panties, not hint of shyness or embarrassment in the slightest. She took a second to lift up the pants before turning to me, now relatively calm after her outburst. She started to say something, but must have reconsidered, putting on the pants and pulling the drawstring as tight as it would go, which still left them loose enough to fall and rest on her hips. I felt my mouth go dry and swallowed, extremely grateful for the mask I still wore. Finally able to look away from the enticing sight, I did so as she sat down gingerly and rolled up the cuffs of the pants. I went back to searching for a sweater, trying to collect myself and put my perverted mind back in it's place, slamming shut the imaginary door which hid the world where she ruled supreme. For a moment I actually thanked some higher power that I had neither seen her disrobe completely nor had I seen anything but her back as of yet, lest my perverted fantasies win out over common sense and self-control.

"Wow, you really were ANBU..." Still failing to find a sweater, I turned to see her staring at me rapturously, the towel once again clutched to her shoulder. Giving up on it, I went to the kit I kept in my closet for patching myself up and fished out some dressings, tape, gauze and antiseptic while I curiously wondered how she had found out I had been in ANBU. I walked over to her and handed her the gauze and one dressing, while I leaned over the back of the armchair and pushed the towel aside to dress the bite.

"That's for your arm." She had been looking at the stuff in her hand in confusion, but snapped to and pulled up her sleeve at being reminded of the cut. I splashed a little antiseptic onto her shoulder and handed the bottle to her as she bit her lip, her eyes shut tightly and a pained hiss escaped her lips. I applied the dressing and taped it down, noting with a frown that the punctures were far too deep to have been caused by human canines.

"So, how'd you get this?" I tapped her shoulder, well away from the wound, but she still knew what I meant. She finished up with her arm and leaned back in the chair as I moved around it and sat down in front of her on the edge of the coffee table, intent on hearing her story.

"I don't know, honestly. Someone decided to mess with my head. They came visiting right after you left, and I thought it was the guy I like, but it was some creep in henge, and -" She had been biting her knuckle and stopped, pulling up the sleeve of her shirt to sniff it. I almost chuckled at the odd gesture, but her expression prevented me from it. Her brow furrowed as she thought, and a moment later her hand wandered absently to her throat, her expression dark and angry.

"And?" She swallowed, her fist clenched so hard the knuckles were white, before continuing in a very strained voice.

"Well, one thing led to another, ending when he bit me. I figured out that it wasn't who I thought it was, and ended up leaving after sealing him out of my room. I went out the window and eventually ended up where you found me. When you did, I thought that he had followed me and taken on the image of someone I trusted again."She looked positively livid, and mingled with her exhaustion it made for a pretty jarring sight. I felt badly for ignoring my earlier intuition and finally understanding her behavior outside, felt angry at whoever would want to cause such pain to the woman sitting before me.

"You really should tell Tsunade. Being attacked in your own house by someone who obviously knows you isn't something to ignore." She relaxed in her chair, her arm thrown over her eyes as she let out a sharp, angry laugh.

"Oh, believe me, I won't be ignoring it. That bastard is never going to be able to leave the hospital again if I ever get my hands on him." I raised my eyebrow and stood up. It sounded strangely as if she knew who it was.

"Alright, I'll keep my end of the bargain and won't tell anyone. However, you should go get some sleep. You need your rest to recover." I went to the bedroom door and picked up her dress off of the floor, hanging it over top of the door itself so that it could dry. I watched her curl up on the chair, obviously going to try to sleep there.

"Sakura, I told you to make yourself at home. You won't get any rest trying to sleep there." She lazily opened one eye, raising the accompanying eyebrow and looking at me curiously.

"I can't take up your bed, Kakashi, I'm already being enough of a pain." She shut her eye again and cuddled into the back of the chair.

"Do you need me to carry you? I believe I've been telling you to get some rest since about two this afternoon. I'm not about to deprive you of it and I'm definitely not letting you sleep on that chair. You aren't being a pain, Sakura. I invited you here because I wanted to help." It wasn't like there wasn't plenty of room, she was used to sleeping on a single bed, whereas mine was a king. I watched as she pushed herself up, probably not wanting to be carried again, and hopped her way past me, smiling gratefully at me as she settled herself under the pile of blankets, laying on her left side at the very edge of the bed. I bid her goodnight and she reciprocated as I left, pulling the door as shut as it would go. The hinge was broken and it had never fully shut, even when I had first moved in. Not that it ever bothered me, but I didn't want the light coming from out here to keep her awake.

I needn't have worried. The combination of physical and mental exhaustion quickly overtook her and she fell asleep almost immediately, her face buried in one of my pillows and her good arm curled beneath her head. After watching for a few minutes to ensure that she was sleeping soundly, I summoned Pakkun, who appeared with a disgruntled yawn. He hated being woken up.

"Keep an eye on her. If she wakes up, tell her I'll be back shortly." With another yawn he nodded and nudged the door aside, hopping up onto the bed to curl up behind the unconscious girl's legs where they bent at the knee. I kept an eye out for another minute or so and then left the apartment, closing the door quietly behind me.

* * *

Her place was a mess, or at least her bedroom was. The bedroom door had been forced open from the look of it, and the room itself looked like a hurricane had hit it. The bed was undone and pulled partially away from the wall, the bookshelves and closet emptied and their contents strewn across the floor, and the window had been left wide open to the rain, leaving the bed and part of the floor soaked and slippery. I shut the window to avoid the rest of the room getting drenched, considering that it was still pouring out, and took a moment to admire the extensive collection of underwear decorating the floor before noting in amusement that among their number was not a single bra, even though there were panties for every color of the rainbow. I left her room in search of her medic's bag, the item I had come here for in the first place. Mine was very lightly stocked, just the bare necessities, but her injuries would probably need a more well-stocked kit.

The rest of the house was completely intact, her bag in the living room sitting half-open on the floor beside the couch. I went and started to close it, pausing when I noticed a pink-covered, well-read and repeatedly dog-eared novel resting right on top of the bag's more medically inclined contents. I seriously considered taking a peek at the kunoichi's coveted little book, remembering how adamant she had been about keeping the contents out of my sight whenever I caught her reading it, but decided that if she found out, the repercussions might not be worth the peek. Considering the state the book was in already, she would most likely notice, too.

Before I shut the bag all the way, I decided to grab her a change of her own clothes, while I was here and already snooping through her stuff. I hadn't seen any in her bedroom, but my eye caught sight of the gift bag I had brought home for her earlier, and I went over to it. I grabbed the outfit closest to the top, which also happened to be the one that had provoked the funniest response from her when she had opened it, and packed it away into the empty space in her kit right near the top, the shoes included with the outfit, considering she hadn't had any on when I found her. Deciding that it was all she'd need, I went back out through the front door, finding with no surprise that it was unlocked. She had been tricked into inviting her attacker right in, after all. Hefting the bag up on my shoulder, I braved the rain for the bare minimum amount of time I had to get to a spot far enough away from the house where I could just go directly back to the apartment. All the seals she kept on her windows kept anyone from using jutsus right outside the house, and from teleporting past the walls of the house. I didn't quite understand why she would bother, but it kept the windows locked even against other shinobi, unlike an actual lock and key setup, which could be part of the appeal. I formed the seals and reappeared inside my apartment building, a little damp, but not as bad as earlier. I climbed the stairs and entered my apartment, locking the door quietly behind me.

I took off my shoes and sat down in the chair, placing the bag gently on the coffee table. I wasn't sure if there was anything breakable in it, and didn't want to end up smashing something she might need when she woke up. Relaxing back into the chair, I noticed a very faint trace of mint as I debated trying to finish the latest of the Icha Icha Tactics series, which Sakura herself had handed to me with a purposeful grin, quickly dismissing the idea. Since I had made the perturbing realization that Sakura was no longer twelve years old, neither in body nor in spirit, the female characters in my favorite books had been replacing themselves with her likeness in my mind, which meant it was one less thing I needed to be clearing from my mind when she was sleeping in my bed.

I jumped slightly when a loud yelp came from the bedroom and Pakkun came tearing out, looking incredibly terrorized as he glared at me, his fur standing on end. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, even as he rushed over and bit my ankle.

"Are you trying to kill me, Kakashi?! If so, I can think of at least a dozen better ways of doing it!" I shook my foot and picked the irate hound off of it, holding him up by the scruff of his neck as he struggled.

"Aw, what happened? Roll over in your sleep and start suffocating?" He had done it more than once sleeping in my bed as a pup, and at the mention of his old habit he started to struggle harder.

"That girl wont stay still, isn't she supposed to be injured? She rolled right on top of me!" My amusement gave way to concern as I remembered the nightmares that she had had every night of our mission, and how her tossing might make her injuries worse.

"Alright, you can go back and sleep now, I won't subject you to it anymore." He huffed and disappeared as I got up and nudged open the bedroom door, letting a stream of light fall on my guest, allowing me to better check on her. She had indeed rolled over onto her bad side, though how she hadn't felt Pakkun there or heard him leave was a mystery to me. Obviously she hadn't, as she was still fast asleep.

Figuring that I myself should get some sleep, I shut the light off and stepped into the room, listening quietly to the sound of her erratic and shallow breathing as I got closer to the bed. I pulled off my still damp shirt and mask, laying them on the dresser to dry as I pulled aside the blankets on the unoccupied side of the bed and lay down, facing away from my former student and blanking my mind of all Icha Icha related thought so that I could sleep.

* * *

I fell asleep on my right side, well to the side of the mattress. So how is it that I woke up with my face buried in her hair, my arm around her waist with her arm on top of mine, and our legs tangled together? Not to mention that she was sleeping peacefully, not a hint of her normally restless tossing or inaudible whispering, just a small trace of a smile. Nearly panicking, I carefully disentangled her fingers from mine, and then our legs and backed up away from her, the minty scent that always clung to her still teasing my nose as I did so.

I sat up and took a peek at the clock on my wall, something I did own despite what the general shinobi population thought, and couldn't help but groan at what I saw. I hadn't woken up so late in ages, and you couldn't even tell the general time of day by looking outside, I noted as I pulled back the curtain slightly. No training today, not with the rain falling as hard as it was. Even if it stopped, everywhere in the village would be muddy and wet, and even Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't want to train in those conditions.

I guess it didn't really matter. The last thing I wanted to do was leave Sakura alone, and Pakkun would kill me if I tried leaving him alone with her while I went out again. That meant that I was staying inside and either doing housework or doing the written report that Tsunade required for Sakura's records pertaining to her exam. The options weren't appealing in the slightest. On the one hand, I might find a clean sweater to wear if I did the rest of my laundry and Sakura would likely be promoted to jounin after her spectacular, if reckless, victory over Sasuke to complete her exam. On the other hand, I really didn't want to spend my day off doing laundry and writing a report that I would get yelled at for later.

Still staring out at the rain, I sighed and resigned myself to the tasks I'd be stuck doing for the remainder of the day. Not right yet though. I needed a shower and some breakfast first. I took off my forehead protector and placed it quietly on the dresser, keeping my sharingan closed to conserve chakra. How I had managed to sleep with it still on was puzzling to say the least, but I had slept partially clothed in my own bed, so I guess there was a first for everything. Entering the bathroom, I made sure to shut the door before turning on the shower, so as not to wake Sakura up. My stomach was telling me to eat, so the shower I took was a short one. Once I was mostly dry and dressed again, I ventured into the small kitchen to see what I had on hand that was edible and preferably not ramen. There was some leftover miso soup in the fridge and deciding that it was good enough, I warmed it up and sat down at the small kitchen table with an empty scroll and pen I dug up from somewhere along with my food.

I ate as I wrote in detail what had transpired on training ground seven during the fight, careful to account for every injury Sasuke had sustained, lest I be accused of being too vague. Sakura had healed her own injuries, so Tsunade didn't know about them and couldn't say outright that I had neglected to mention them, but there had been remarkably few of them and none truly serious, so I did note them as well. Once done, I reflected upon the longer than normal report and realized that time-wise it had been a relatively quick victory on Sakura's part, but she had accomplished a lot in that short time, namely her surprising use of the weather and environment, and her adaptable strategy.

I tossed the pen down on the table and rolled up the scroll, my mind once again puzzling over the end of the fight. Why had she really done it? Just because she could? Was she trying to prove herself as a capable ninja? Was it her idea of justice for what happened on our mission? She had basically said it was because she knew she could, but was that it? It seemed so odd and uncharacteristic of her to do something so reckless without a real meaning. Her actions had, however, seemed to put Sasuke in place, the way he had acted last night being proof of that.

Never once had I seen him act that openly, that vulnerable when speaking to anyone, and even though I couldn't hear what was being said I had a good idea, and Sakura's cool reaction to his act wasn't very surprising. Not if the way he had treated her in the past was any factor. I had seen what him leaving had done to her. Mind and body she had seemed completely crushed, dealing with the loss by throwing herself completely into her training with Tsunade, and the odd time I found that she had been forced to take a day to recuperate, she had spent it out on the bench where Sasuke had left her, just watching the gate. She talked to me on these days if I happened to be around, but from what I had heard she never made any effort to talk to anyone else, not Naruto before he left, or even Ino.

I got up and did my laundry, placing the completed report in my vest pocket ready to bring to Tsunade the next time I was headed that way. Over the remainder of the day I managed to even get all my clean clothes folded and put away, noting while I did so that Sakura had returned to a more fitful sleep once again, although less worried about it now. It seemed that the nightmares only came in stages, with times of more peaceful sleep between them.

She didn't wake up all day, or at all that night, which wasn't very surprising either. Soldier pills took an incredible toll on the body, and it would take even longer for her to recuperate with all her injuries. In fact, she didn't gain full consciousness until late Thursday morning, while her exam and birthday party had been on Saturday. I woke her up intermittently to eat, but she never became fully coherent at these times. Every night I fell asleep the same way, facing away from her at the edge of the bed, while every morning I woke up the same way; cuddled with my arm around her and nuzzled into her neck, with her once again sleeping peacefully.

Thursday morning was the same as the others. I woke up and regretfully disentangled myself from the soundly sleeping kunoichi, having somewhat gotten used to waking up to such a sweet sight and making my way first to the window to check the weather. For the first time since the exam, the sky was totally clear and the rain had totally stopped, the sun shining brightly. The heat had risen greatly and the streets were drying up quickly, but there were still places where the water was flooded several inches deep, and every grassy area appeared to be nothing but mud. I left the curtain open slightly to let the sunlight into the room and went to have my shower, pondering the reasons why my body somehow instinctively found it's way to her every night.

Once I had gotten out of the shower, it struck me that I hadn't been very careful about circumventing old habits this morning, as I had left all my clothes in the dresser. I dried off thoroughly and wrapped the wet towel firmly around my waist before I left to get dressed, because the laws of the universe dictated that, today being the only day I didn't get dressed right after my shower, it would be the morning she was awake when I got out there.

"Good Morning, Kakashi." Of course, the universe wouldn't fail me today. The bathroom being attached to the bedroom, the first thing greeting me as I stepped out was her sleepy smile, followed by a surprised blush and her eyes almost immediately dropping to her lap with what I could swear was a hint of a grin. I quickly grabbed my clothes and retreated back to the bathroom to get dressed, torn between embarrassment that she had caught me without my mask and the slightly twisted pleasure I felt from getting her to blush. Once I was fully dressed I went back out again, this time to see Sakura already hard at work healing herself.

"Ah, sorry about that. Didn't figure you'd be awake yet." She smiled oddly, flexing her right arm, which was now back in working condition.

"Don't worry about it. Payback for the little show I gave last night, I guess." She reached under her shirt on her right side, and I guessed that she might've had some cracked ribs. I did know what she was talking about, and chuckled at how far she was behind.

"Last night you were sleeping like a log, just like you have been since Saturday night." She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me in confusion.

"It's ten-thirty on Thursday morning, Sakura. You've been sleeping for four days." Her face went white and her mouth dropped open ever so slightly before she started to visibly panic.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I've probably been such a pain, I can't believe I've been here so long!" I had already left and grabbed her bag, now returning to her and placing it on the bed beside her. Surprised, she calmed down and blushed, a smile creeping back over her face.

"You weren't a pain, Sakura. Would you really have preferred to stay in the hospital for so long?" She shook her head, turning a bright shade of pink when she opened the bag and pulled out the clothes.

"Thanks for going back to get my kit for me... and the change of clothes..." She mumbled the last bit, the pink on her cheeks getting progressively brighter as she found the red undergarments and shoved them out of sight. I grinned, and her blushing got worse.

"Well, I figured you'd be better equipped to to deal with your injuries if I did, and that you'd probably be more comfortable in clothes your own size. Not to mention that you probably don't want to be leaving here in either your green dress or my clothes." An inexplicably sly look flashed in her eyes momentarily as I started to make my way towards the kitchen.

"Thanks, Kakashi. What would I have done if I had ended up staying at home alone? I would've ended up in the hospital for dehydration and malnutrition. I owe you one, and don't have any idea how I could ever repay you." I stopped short as a barrage of naughty ideas flooded into my mind at the words she said in such a coy voice, and desperately quashed them, turning to give her a reassuring smile. She had a needle and thread out and was stitching up the worst part of the gash on her arm, and the smile she flashed me made my mouth go dry.

"It's what friends are for, right? Anyway, finish up and go have a shower. I'm going to go make us breakfast." She nodded, biting the end of the thread to cut it and then moving onto the scrape on her leg. I left her and entered the kitchen. I had gone out a couple days ago much to Pakkun's intense displeasure, to do some groceries. I hadn't gotten much, mostly because I was a bit picky with my food, but from what I remembered, Sakura wasn't. In her genin days she had even eaten the burnt mess she prepared in place of dinner without so much as a complaint, unlike the rest of us. I hoped she liked eggs and toast.

I heard the shower start as I prepared the eggs and by the time I was finished, I heard her heels clicking on the living room floor as she approached, and marveled at her impeccable timing. I turned to bring the food out to the table and the plates were taken from me as I struggled to keep my surprise from being so evident and secretly agreeing with the givers of the gift, that Dark red and black were indeed striking colors on the pink-haired woman.

"Here, let me help. Sorry I wasn't quick enough to help make it too." As she turned and went to the table I couldn't help but notice the slight, but still extremely sexy sway that the little bit of heel on her sandals had given to her already appealing hips as she walked. I poured us each a cup of tea and brought it to the table along with our utensils, as I tried to keep my mind from wandering farther south than her gorgeous face.

She happily ate her breakfast while I ended up spending more time watching her than eating. She had pulled her wet hair up into a messy bun and secured it with a pair of senbon she had probably taken from her kit, and for the first time I noticed that her nails were painted, not the bright acid green she had used to favor, but a shimmery, silvery white which made the tan skin of her hands and arms look even darker. She was still wearing the watch Tsunade had given her, as well as the necklace she had received from Sasuke. Her outfit itself didn't show a lot of skin, but it hugged her figure closely and coupled with the fact that I could easily imagine the red lace she was wearing underneath it was wholly a mouthwatering sight.

We were eventually interrupted by a knock at the door, and Sakura offered to go wash the dishes as I got up to answer it. On the other side of my door was a particularly irate looking Sasuke, obviously not pleased to be here.

"Yo. Morning, Sasuke." His expression didn't change as he leaned on the door frame, his arms crossed.

"Can I borrow Pakkun?" I raised an eyebrow and put my hands in my pockets. He was being unusually blunt this morning.

"He's not very pleased with me at the moment, so not likely. What do you need him for?" He probably would go i I really wanted him to, but I didn't really want to bother him, honestly. I could see Sasuke's eyebrow twitch, probably not pleased that his job was being made more difficult.

"Listen, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. Tsunade needs to see Sakura, and she seems to have disappeared. We haven't been able to find her for three days, and this is a last resort." He was obviously put out at having to ask for help, and I smiled.

"You can't find Sakura? That's odd. She's not one to just take off. You checked her house?" He eyed me suspiciously, and I wondered if my tone had given me away.

"I looked there first. Her bedroom's in shambles and her kit-" His eyes narrowed as he happened to glance past me.

"-was missing." I cast a glance in the general direction he was staring. Sakura's bag was laying lopsided on the floor beside her chair, and I couldn't help but grin as Sasuke pushed his way past me into the apartment.

"There, I'm done with the dishes. Thanks for letting me stay here, Kakashi, but I guess I'm going to have to go see Tsunade after all, that stupid bite isn't heal- YOU." I turned as Sakura's voice got louder and she emerged from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. Her expression turned to one of fervent hatred as she caught sight of Sasuke, and I almost wasn't fast enough to stop her from lunging at him.

"Oh no you don't, let go of me! I'm going to break every bone in his body before I forcibly remove his teeth and shove them down his throat!" I was having a hard time holding the slight woman back and finally grabbed her wrists and pulled them behind her back, one arm around her waist as she yelled at our teammate and his expression grew continually blacker.

How he managed to do it I couldn't figure out, but he came within just a couple feet of her, causing her to struggle even harder. With her rested and back at full strength again, I wasn't sure that I could hold her much longer.

"Sasuke, you'd better get lost if you plan on staying in one piece." I grunted with the strain of holding her back and forced her to her knees to stop her from kicking. Sasuke didn't heed me, actually coming closer and kneeling down to whisper something I couldn't hear into the helpless woman's ear.

Newly enraged, she managed to break free of my grasp, decking Sasuke square in the face before I could grab her again, pulling her away from him as she kicked and snarled a colorful string of profanity at him. He didn't look surprised or even angry anymore, the smile on his face as he stood up and wiped the blood from his lip being completely unreadable, other than screaming that he was up to no good.

Sakura stopped struggling as he activated his sharingan, the little hairs on the back of her neck standing straight up as her hand found it's way to her shoulder. I let go of her tentatively, intent on getting him out of here before she started back at him again and wondering why she stopped in the first place.

My hands had barely left her when she let out and ear-piercing shriek and fell to her knees, one hand clawing at the floor, while the other left five bloody stripes on her shoulder and neck, all leading to the dressing covering her bite, where her hand was clutched like her life depended on it. I knelt down and pried her fingers away as she started shaking, her breathing labored and her fingers tightly curling up over my hand.

"What the hell are you doing to her, Sasuke?" I ripped off the dressing, but the bite was no longer there. In place of the punctures were four curved marks on the skin, black as the ink of the butterfly on her back, with equally black lines replacing the bruises in a circle joining them.

"I'm teaching her a lesson. Never too early to learn." The implications of what he was saying were just too much, and I let go of her hand, my normally ever-present self-control giving way to rage as I darted over to Sasuke and slammed him up against the wall.

"You think she belongs to you? She's not a toy or a possession, you sick bastard!" He had branded her with a cursed seal, much like the one he himself had been branded with, but different. I had no doubts that this one would grant no power, but was purely to cause pain and he planned on using it to control her, like a shock collar. The sadistic smile never left his face as he continued to stare right past me, and Sakura let out another pained scream.

"She does belong to me, by her own admission. She just needs to be re-educated, that's all." So saying, he disappeared in a blaze of fire, leaving a burn on my hand and a charred mark on the wall. Trying to rein back in my temper, I went back to the terrorized girl, now struggling to stand back up, her left hand dripping blood from her fingertips. She had clawed the floor so hard she had ripped off two of her fingernails, and the other three had each been pulled away from the skin to varying degrees. She was shaking badly as she held onto the table for balance and I felt horrible for holding her back now that I understood why she had been so intent on causing him injury.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't know he was the one who..." She shook her head, forcing a smile as she swallowed and turned to me, her fingers gingerly touching her shoulder.

"No, you were right to hold me back. Imagine what he would have done if I had done any worse to him, what deep shit I'd be in then." Her face assumed a state of placidity as she took my hand and healed the burn on it before turning to the scratches she had gouged into her shoulder and neck.

"Are you okay?" She nodded as she reached into her kit for some bandages, carefully wrapping the fingers she wasn't able to heal. Once she finished, she put the roll back away and grabbed a small bottle of pills, retrieving one and swallowing it before putting them away too.

"Apparently it's just pain, not injury. It's lingering, but I doubt it's permanent. Nobody has the massive chakra needed to cause pain on that level constantly without visual or physical contact." She flexed her shoulder and then strapped on her bag, making her way to the door.

"Are you going to tell Tsunade? She needs to know that he's acting like this towards you." I went and joined her outside the door, slipping on my jounin vest and shutting the door quietly behind us. I'd hand in my report while we were there.

"Not if I can help it. The less people who know about this the better." She was walking quickly and she pulled her shirt up to better cover the seal. I didn't particularly like the direction she was trying to take this. Sasuke was unstable and dangerous, and she was disregarding that.

"You can't help it. Tell her, or I will." She stopped, a hurt expression flooding her face. I didn't like it, but if it would keep her safe later it didn't matter.

"That's not fair, you promised." She was biting her lip, her eyes glaring at me accusingly.

"No, I promised that I wouldn't tell that you were attacked on Saturday. I make no promises about this because like it or not, Sasuke is dangerous and he has no right to treat you like this." She started walking again, her shoulders up and her arms crossed. I couldn't see, but I could almost imagine her pouting to go along with the childish sulky pose.

"What good do you think ratting him out will do? He'll only get worse. Haven't you noticed? His 'black' side is a result of his mile-wide jealous streak, and he's going to continue on like this until I stop rejecting his advances." Her voice spoke volumes of her anger, and looking back I realized that she might be right, especially in his unstable state, but I still doubted he had any real feelings for her.

"We'll be able to suppress the seal, and maybe have his black side sealed too." She laughed mirthlessly.

"Do you think the elders' will allow Tsunade to seal it at the possible expense of his ninja career? Hell no. He's too precious of a commodity to this village, otherwise Tsunade probably would've had him lynched when I brought him back. I have no illusions about my status here compared to his, and there isn't anything to be gained by telling." I was temporarily stunned by her newfound cynicism and admittedly accurate insight, and stopped her.

"What makes you think you're any less important to this village than he is? You've progressed incredibly as a ninja, you aced your jounin exam, have fostered friendship in other hidden villages, you've eliminated threats to Konoha on your own initiative and pulled off something nobody else has ever tried before, let alone actually lived through. All while staying completely loyal to your village, which alone is more than he can claim." She smiled, albeit the same skeptical smile she always gave me in response to my excuses for being late.

"He's the last in line to pass on a prestigious and coveted bloodline trait. They aren't going to take that away any more than they are going to order the extermination of the Byakugan. It doesn't matter what I contribute to the village now, he has the potential to contribute much more." Her tone had a grim finality to it that ended that particular topic of conversation as she pulled away from me and started walking again. I followed suit, admitting with no happiness that she was probably right.

"Even so, we can still get the seal suppressed. He shouldn't be able to treat you like a toy, or a pet." She reached back behind her head and pulled out the senbon there, shaking out her still damp hair as she put them away.

"If I asked you to do it, would you?" She looked at me as she shook out her hair with her fingers, her gaze subdued. I didn't immediately answer her, because I didn't know if I'd be able to handle the process, but the desire to keep her safe and happy won out over my own caution.

"If you asked me in all seriousness, I would. Just understand the implications of keeping Tsunade in the dark of such dangerous events and the possible repercussions that it might have. Not just for yourself, but everyone else too." She nodded, pulling her hair over her shoulder and arranging it so that it hid the seal nicely.

"I don't do things without thinking them through. You might see my actions as reckless or thoughtless sometimes, but that's only because you don't see everything as I do. There is absolutely no point in spreading this any farther than necessary and I'd rather not worry Tsunade needlessly. Poor woman has enough shit to deal with on a daily basis." I nodded, still not entirely comfortable with her logic, but I couldn't possibly deny her when she was indeed right, and she smiled softly back at me, her right hand reaching up to twist the silver chain at her throat around her fingers. I couldn't understand why she kept it.

"Why do you keep that necklace on? You know that it probably only enforces to him the idea that he can claim you as his own?" She shook her head, her hand falling to her side.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with Sasuke, it's the memento he owed me after I gave up Itachi's ring and cloak to him. I thought he forgot about it, but he didn't and I'm grateful. Why shouldn't I wear it?" She surprised me with her prompt response, but just because it had deeper meaning to her didn't necessarily mean it did to Sasuke. Actually, I was positive it didn't.

"I see. Well, regardless of what it may mean to you, I can just about guarantee that to him, the fact that you're keeping it is only grounds to keep up his behavior." Her brows furrowed and she looked troubled as she tucked some stray hair behind her ear. We had reached Hokage Tower and I held the door for her as we entered. It was uncommonly quiet inside, and even Shizune wasn't at her normal post hovering outside of Tsunade's office. I knocked on the door, and we were invited in rather gruffly. Sakura went in first and stood before the desk, bowing respectfully, while I just stood beside her and dropped my report into Tsunade's inbox. She looked up at us in nothing less than the mild annoyance that normally graced her sharp features.

"Where the hell have you two been? Kakashi, that report was due days ago. Sakura, your friends have overturned the village looking for you and Sasuke has been in here bothering me for three days now." Sakura crossed her arms, not looking too impressed.

"I haven't been anywhere I had no reason to be, sleeping off the effects of my birthday." Tsunade narrowed her eyes and her gaze flickered briefly between the two of us.

"Sakura, nobody sleeps for four days unless there's something wrong with them. Care to revise your story?" She stood her ground, and I wasn't about to say anything that would contradict her vague allusions to the truth. Getting no response from either of us she slammed her fist down on the desk, cracking it.

"Sakura, you're already treading on thin ice after that stunt you pulled during your exam. Start talking before I lose my temper." Sakura widened her stance, tapping her foot impatiently on the ground.

"Between the energy drain and the injuries I sustained during my exam and my actions during and after my birthday party, I ended up spending a few days in bed recuperating. I assure you, I did spend four days sleeping." Tsunade glared at me, probably due to Sakura's poor choice in words.

"The medic on standby didn't report that you'd been injured." She was tapping her pen on the desk, eying Sakura and I with intense scrutiny. Sakura didn't seem to care, and clasped both hands behind her head, still tapping her foot.

"I healed my own injuries and walked off the grounds under my own power. There wouldn't be any reason to report my injuries, because she wasn't on site quick enough to see them." Tsunade's eyebrow twitched and she dropped her pen.

"You should have gone to the hospital to be treated. In any case, you qualify for the rank of jounin as of today. Your vest has already been made for you, it's over in that box on the table, as is your hospital uniform. Kakashi, I'd suggest you leave while I speak to Sakura for a moment." I nodded and turned to the door as Sakura gave me a scandalized look.

"I'll be right outside waiting for you. I won't leave without you, Sakura." The look Tsunade shot me was absolute murder as I left the room and took a seat outside in Shizune's abandoned desk chair. I waited for a good twenty minutes before Sakura stomped out of the hokage's office, her vest and uniform clutched under her left arm as she slammed the door.

"What was that about?" She huffed, obviously displeased.

"My preferred form of birth control is apparently not regulation here. Not to mention the detailed inquiry I was just subjected to about why or why not I qualify for certain types of missions where my kunoichi skills would be required." Her arms crossed angrily over her chest, she began walking towards the exit as I tried to hide the curious expression on my face.

"So, do you qualify?" She glared at the floor, turning pink.

"I don't think so, because I have absolutely no experience seducing anyone, and my sex appeal isn't even enough to get Jiraiya to hit on me, but Tsunade thinks my recently acquired habits and experience dealing with Jiraiya more than qualify me." I couldn't think of a single thing to say, as this was territory that I had never trod before.

"Ah well, it doesn't really matter, I guess. She at least is allowing me some time to get my act together before sending me on those kinds of missions. God was that embarrassing though." I raised an eyebrow at her.

"What do you mean, get your act together?" She cast a sideways glance at me as we exited the tower.

"I suppose she means that I should get some experience under my belt, which likely means she wants me to get a boyfriend." In my mind I smiled, but on the outside I just ruffled her hair and she swatted my hand away.

* * *

"Are you really sure you want to do this now?" We had ended up back at my apartment because of the privacy it afforded compared to her house and now I watched as she cleared a sizable place on the floor.

"Yes, I'm sure. The last thing I want is to be caused that degree of pain every time I decide to piss that bastard off." She was apparently well-versed in seal suppression, as she had taken a piece of chalk from her kit and marked where the lines of the seal would fall on the floor, aligning herself in the middle of them.

"Alright, I hope you're comfortable. This is going to take a while." Nine-point seals took a lot of time and energy to create, mostly due to the amount of chakra required by both parties to make the seal strong. Still sitting down, she pulled off her shirt and the lacy camisole underneath before shifting slightly to take off her pants and sandals, placing all her clothing well off to the side along with her watch. Left only in a tiny pair of lacy red shorts she reached into her bag and put her hair back up into the senbon crossed bun and placing her feet and hands down on the appropriate points on the floor.

"Yeah, I know, stay still and all that. Usually, the medic's the one doing the suppression, not sitting through it." I took a deep breath and focused my mind away from the fact that she was once again stripped down to her panties in my living room and onto the task at hand, which would require my full attention to complete properly. I bit my thumb so that it bled freely and started scribing the first point of the seal along the length of her left arm.

The time past in relative silence while I went across her back and scribed points two, three, four and five, and moved onto her right arm, point number six. During this time she dazed out, staring at the floor by her right foot, mentally somewhere else. Probably her way of coping with this particularly uncomfortable situation, but it was only going to become worse. I coughed quietly to get her attention as I finished the sixth point, and she snapped to, turning her head to look at me, her cheeks pink.

"Lift your chin, your blocking my path." She did so, resting her head back as far as it would go and fixing her gaze on the light fixture up above us as I worked on the seventh point, writing from her shoulder down across her chest and stomach and all the way down her right leg, ending well past her toes on the floor. The seventh point was always the longest and was actually the cornerstone for the entire seal, which is why it was placed the way it was. The eighth was a lot shorter but the positioning was extremely delicate, and her breath hitched slightly as I followed the curve of her left breast, causing the symbol to smear slightly. Blushing, I took a deep breath and brought my mind back to the task I still had to finish, wiping away the smeared symbol and redoing it before continuing on down her stomach in a straight line, all the way along her left leg and down past her silvery white painted toes. Finally finished with the longest points and only left with the last, a single seal for the center point, I moved back behind her and scribed the seal dead in the center of the four-pointed curse mark on her shoulder.

"Brace yourself. This is probably going to hurt, and you still can't move."

"I know, please let's get this over with." She tucked her chin to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut in preparation for it while I formed the hand seals and initiated the suppression. She tensed up but thankfully didn't actually move as the lines of symbols all retracted into the center and formed a swirly sort of sun shape over the curse mark, before both faded into the skin and she slumped forward, her forehead resting on her knees and her shoulders heaving.

Feeling the combination of the blood loss and massive chakra depletion I sat back, leaning against the wall to catch my breath and finally be able to admire the young woman sitting in front of me. It would've taken almost as much chakra from her to make the seal as it did from me, and paired with all the healing she had done this morning, I was genuinely surprised that she hadn't passed out. No, she was getting dressed now, while I was perfectly content watching her slow, languid movements. She was tired and probably going to go home and sleep right away. She took down her hair, shaking it out in loose waves and as her hand brushed her neck, her expression grew dark and she took off the necklace, dropping it into her bag with the senbon.

"Kakashi?" She was now fully clothed and absently rubbing out the chalk guidelines on the floor. She started to turn pink again, her eyes half-closed and focused on me.

"Hmm?" My shoulders hurt from being hunched over all afternoon drawing those seals, and I could see out the window that it was dark out, so it was at least past eight in the evening. She was now tracing a spiral on the floor with her finger, a gesture of nerves.

"Um, do you mind if I ask you one last favor?" I smiled, hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

"Sakura, whatever you ask I doubt it will be the last favor I ever perform for you." She turned a slightly brighter shade of pink and started to bite her lip.

"Uh... Would you mind if I... if I stayed here again tonight?" I sat up in surprise, not having expected that and glad for my mask as it was now my turn to be blushing.

"Of course I don't mind, but can I ask why?" She smiled, leaning her head against her knees as she turned her body to face me.

"I have a feeling that if I'm alone tonight, it will just be inviting a repeat of what happened on my birthday, and I don't want that to happen again. If I'm not home tonight, he'll probably figure out that I'm still here, but at least he'll probably wait until I leave to try anything." Her voice sounded less nervous and more relieved now, as she started to play with her hair. She was probably right about Sasuke, he was if nothing else extremely persistent and in her state she wouldn't be able to handle it if he got particularly aggressive.

"Alright, you're welcome to stay here. Sasuke is going to be mad when he finds out though, you know that." She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out.

"I don't care, I can handle him as long as I get some rest tonight. I already told him I wasn't interested, and he can learn to rein in that possessive jealousy of his. He couldn't expect me to wait forever for him, you know?" She tried to stand and lost her balance, falling back down to the floor where she curled her knees back up to her chest and hugged them. i really envied the man that could hold the attention of such a unique woman.

"The guy you like now... how serious are you about him?" I decided to test the ice and see how talkative she decided to be tonight. She smiled shyly and licked her bottom lip tantalizingly.

"I had a bit of a crush on him before I left, and I guess I just never got over it. It's a rarity if he's ever not on my mind, honestly." I wasn't likely to be able to break through a barrier like that anytime soon and the thought was kind of depressing.

"What's he like?" Maybe if I was lucky he had changed enough in six years that she might end up losing interest. She was still looking shyly at the ground as a blush slowly crept across her cheeks.

"He's caring, and easy to talk to. His bad habits seem to have gotten a lot better since I was gone, and he's become more affectionate, although it's still strictly platonic. He always seems to be right there when I need help and he's really smart and relatively well-liked. He's really hot too, which is a plus." For a moment I wondered if it could be Iruka, but remembered that she had said it wasn't one of her academy teachers. Try as I might, I couldn't think of anyone else who fit before she continued.

"Around other people he doesn't really act like the same person at all though. He's quiet and keeps to himself mostly, almost to the point of being anti-social. He's a bit of a smart ass and can be downright rude at times, and he's too stubborn for his own good. Emotional baggage in spades, enjoys seeing how far he can push someone before he gets pushed back and he's a perpetual tease. I think that about covers it." I still couldn't think of anyone who fit all of the criteria, but the glazed look in her eyes while she spoke insisted that she was thinking of him, the smile on her face so open and happy. I hated to admit it, but I was jealous. Thankfully I had more self-control than Sasuke and wouldn't show it.

"Sounds like an imaginary friend. I can't think of a single shinobi in this village who fits your description." She just continued to smile, blushing brightly.

"You're smart, you'll figure it out. Hell, Sasuke managed to see right through me, so for you it should be cake." I momentarily thought of just going and asking our black-haired teammate, but at the same time doubted that he'd tell if I did.

"How did he figure it out?" She raised her head, running her fingers through her hair.

"He said I was obvious about it, that's all. Honestly, I don't care if nobody else figures it out, because I'd rather him not find out and our relationship stay exactly as it is than him finding out and openly rejecting me." Something I couldn't possibly imagine anyone doing.

"What if he finds out and feels the same way, what then?" Her gaze went distant and somewhat sad as she rested her chin on her hands.

"That would be great, but not likely to happen. I've never seen him in a relationship with any woman and neither has Jiraiya, although we're both pretty sure he's straight, and I'm not really the kind of girl most guys have their eye on anyway." I couldn't help but wonder if she was completely forgetting every single reaction she got at her birthday party or if her inaccurate self-image was a result of something else.

"What do you mean? Every guy has different tastes, you know." She started biting her knuckle, still staring at the wall.

"I know, but... I'm not much to look at, I have no experience with guys, my temper is absolutely horrible and I tend to have a bit of a bad attitude, or so Tsunade told me this morning. I'd... I'd rather he just be happy, because then I'd be happy." She scooted back so that she could lean back against the wall across from me, a sad smile momentarily gracing her face while I tried in vain to see where she was getting this from and to figure out why she had such a passive attitude towards love. It was s disturbing change from the enthusiasm she harbored for her first crush so many years ago.

"Sakura, everyone's different, and so have different tastes. You can't change who you are and if he can't accept that, maybe he's just not worth your time." Her head snapped up and she gave me a pout, crossing her arms protectively across her knees.

"Is there suddenly something wrong with liking someone from a distance? I don't want to take the chance of ruining our friendship, personally." She looked almost like she wanted to cry.

"Sakura, do you honestly think it's fair to yourself to love without being loved back? I can see you taking this stance if he was attached, but since you've already said he isn't, I don't understand why you'd do it. It's just like when you had a crush on Sasuke." I honestly could not fathom her motives at the moment and watching her get so defensive made me feel bad for pressing the subject.

"I accepted the fact that he wouldn't return my feelings a long time ago, I even tried my hardest to get over him. Please don't criticize my attitude towards love, because I don't question yours. As long as things remain the way they are, I'll be perfectly happy just being near him, hearing his voice." The finality in her voice sought to close the conversation, but I wasn't ready to let it drop quite yet. I needed to know why she was willing to be so attached to someone without wanting a reciprocative relationship with them.

"Why do you like the guy so much?" She rested her head on her arms, staring at the wall again.

"Because he makes me feel special, he respects and trusts me. Because as annoying as his bad habits are, they're incredibly endearing. Because he has the cutest smile in the world and I love the way he talks to me, the way he always smells like the outdoors. Because I just don't need a reason, okay?" There was something odd in her voice that silenced my intrusive questioning, but now I was even more jealous, even if I had no right to be.

I watched as she tried to stand again, he palms pressed firmly against the wall behind her for support and got up myself, still sore and tired. She gingerly tried to stand without help, and took a few slow steps towards my bedroom. Becoming more balanced, she started to take off her shirt as she approached my room.

"Going to bed?" She turned, her shirt halfway off as she fiddled with the knot keeping it closed.

"Yeah, I would've gone earlier, but I couldn't make myself walk. You shouldn't stay up too late either." Oh, no worries there. I followed her as she slipped out of her shirt and pants, placing them folded up on top of my bare dresser and picking up the navy blue sweater that had previously been where her clothes now lay, quickly donning it. She rolled up the sleeves to a comfortable length and hopped up onto the bed like a little kid, affording me a naughty peek of her red panties from under my shirt as she crawled up to the head of the bed and curled up under the blankets, one arm under her head and the other laying gently on top of the blankets. Amused at her sudden change in behavior and truly marveling how Icha Icha couldn't possibly compare to the real thing, I shut the lights off and took off my own vest and sweater, laying down in bed on the opposite side with a quick prayer to whoever would listen that my body didn't decide to cuddle her tonight.


	15. 14

**GR's Note:**_ There, all of the first 15 parts have been edited properly and reposted. Now back to typing Chapter 15._

-14-

When I woke up, I somehow knew that I hadn't been asleep for very long and when I tried to turn to get into a more comfortable position, I found that I was being held down. Snapping my eyes open in confusion, I found myself face to face with my very sexy, very shirtless ex-sensei, his right arm wrapped around my waist and his right leg pinning my own to the mattress. Swallowing my initial confusion, it was quickly replaced by rapture as I examined the soundly sleeping man I was cuddled tightly against, ignoring for the moment the prickling along my neck and throbbing pain in my left shoulder that was likely the reason I had awoken in the first place. I didn't care, Sasuke could watch me admire Kakashi with as much murderous intent as he wanted, it didn't change the fact of whose bed I had ended up in, even if nothing had happened.

I remembered Kakashi coming to bed with both his mask and undershirt on, but for whatever reason he must have taken them off and i was thoroughly enjoying what view the faint light in the room was allowing me. Jiraiya didn't do him justice on paper, but then again I don't think any drawing or painting could possibly compare to the man himself. His face was flawless, even taking into account the scar over his eye and another tiny scar on his chin that stopped just shy of his lips. I had to wonder if that one was recent, as it hadn't been included in any part of my book, but the majority of the obvious scars scattered across his toned arms and chest had been rendered with amazing accuracy. His face itself looked so peaceful, made him actually look vulnerable, and it was such a contrast to his waking attitude I couldn't help but lean forward and give him a peck on the forehead.

My eyes and mind were drawn away from him and towards the open curtain as the pain in my shoulder became too strong to ignore anymore. Gently, so that I didn't wake him, I unwrapped my own arm from his bare waist and tried to lift his arm off of me, failing when he pulled me closer and nuzzled into my shoulder without waking. Swallowing quietly, I tried again, this time able to slip underneath and set his arm between us on the sheets and move my attention to my leg. Pulling the blanket up over him so that he might not notice the heat that he'd be missing in a moment, I sat up and painstakingly removed my leg from under his before sliding out from under the blankets and completely off of the bed. Crossing over to the window, my hand lingered on the edge of the curtain as I focused my gaze on the dark rooftops outside, finally after a moment catching sight of a dark shadow just visible beside a chimney stack on the other side of the street above me. Knowing perfectly well he could see me, I flipped him the middle finger and shut the curtain, obstructing his view and easing my discomfort somewhat while affording me a small sense of satisfaction at the same time.

Moments after the curtain had shut fully came the painfully loud and distinctive sound of metal hitting glass; not once but three times in succession, which I assumed was the result of a few shuriken being thrown either in anger or just plain frustration. I couldn't stop the smirk from crossing my face until I felt a warm and tingly sensation creep up my spine. Whirling to face the bed, he appeared to have just rolled on his back and remained asleep, but I knew better. I could feel him watching me with his sharingan and I could see it open just a slit, even in the newly dark room.

"I know you're awake and watching me. You can stop pretending to be asleep." Caught, he sat up and I stepped back over to the bed.

"What made you get up?" His gaze was still fixed on me as I crawled across the mattress and flopped back down onto the pillows, covering my bare legs with the blankets.

"Sasuke. He was watching me from the roof across the street." His gaze narrowed and the tingling along my spine started to burn my skin as his temper rose.

"How do you know he was watching?" I tapped my shoulder.

"Apparently whatever he did to me is too strong for even nine points to completely contain." I rolled and faced away from him, my arm once again under my pillow and my legs curled up close to me. I wouldn't have minded going back to the way we were, but with him being awake I wasn't just going to snuggle up to him like that.

"You know, there is a point where the line gets crossed, Sakura. Even Tsunade would overrule the elders if she knew what was going on between you two. She'd stop it for good." I sighed, wondering if he would ever get it. The burning sensation across my back ceased abruptly and I felt him settle back down on the mattress behind me. When I didn't answer, he pulled out his 'sensei' voice, the one he used to use on us when we were being particularly annoying or childish under his tutelage.

"Sakura, why are you trying to deal with this on your own, when there are people around you willing to help?" I ran my right hand through my hair, shrugging the neck of the sweater up to cover my upper arm and shoulder at the same time.

"Why won't you just let this go? He isn't anything I can't deal with, and it's probably just a matter of time before he accepts that I'm not the girl for him. I'd really like to regain our friendship, if I can." His own silence indicated that he wasn't entirely satisfied with my answer, so I tried to elaborate.

"I don't want him to have to go through the process of trying to seal a second personality because in all honesty, I don't think it is one at all, I think that it's just him trying to get what he wants the only way he knows how to; through pain and fear. Even if it worked on me though, he wouldn't be happy with our relationship in the slightest once it was set into motion and would get over me incredibly quickly. He thinks that I'm the one he wants, but I'm not, not really. He needs someone girlier and sweeter, probably someone more to his taste physically as well, but most importantly, a girl who actively wants children, which I most definitely am not. But I digress. I refuse to accept that something so drastic it could destroy him is needed for him to stop this and that's why I don't need Tsunade's help, although I appreciate yours to no end." I heard him sharply exhale, a sound of exasperation. I pulled a chunk of my hair aside and started to play with it, occupying my hands and mind as I anticipated that he wouldn't be letting me go back to sleep right yet.

"You're going to get hurt with that kind of attitude, Sakura. He doesn't act like everyone else, his mind has been too warped, first by Itachi and then Orochimaru. Normal common sense doesn't always occur to him simply because his motives and the way he thinks aren't normal." His hand brushed aside the hair on my shoulder and pulled on my arm to roll me on my back. I wasn't as surprised by this action as I was taken aback by the completely unguarded look of concern aimed at me, and shot him back my own slightly annoyed glare in retaliation.

"This is my business, and how I deal with it should be left up to me to decide." I shook off his hand and rolled back onto my side, snuggling into the pillow as I hoped that my intent to end the conversation would be heeded.

"You can't keep something like this a secret forever and eventually it will be found out. When it is, shit's going to hit the fan, particularly with Tsunade. It's her business to know what goes on in this town, and I shouldn't have to remind you of all people what the receiving end of her temper is like." I stiffened, incensed that he wouldn't just drop it, even with no real reason to pursue it.

"He's not stupid enough to give himself away that easily Kakashi, and I'm not about to do so myself. Anything he does will likely be behind closed doors, which suits me just fine." I huffed, wrapping my arms tighter around my pillow and shutting my eyes. I nearly jumped when I felt his hand come to rest on my waist.

"You can't mean that, Sakura. What happens if he tries to impersonate someone else again to get to you?" I shook my head.

"Once bitten twice shy, pun fully intended. I'm not about to fall for the same trick twice. What happened to all that confidence you had in me before my exam?" He went silent for a moment and I tried to let myself drift off to sleep amidst only the sound of our breathing.

"I haven't lost confidence in your skills, Sakura. I'm just worried that you might be getting in over your head. I'm worried about you." It was my turn to fall silent as a slight blush crept up over my cheeks.

"I appreciate everything you do for me Kakashi, and your concern no less so, but you don't need to be worried. I'll get out of this alright, It's just a matter of letting it blow over. I'm nothing if not capable, you've said so yourself. Now, we should really get back to sleep, so good night." I closed my eyes again, hoping that he might understand my desire to end the conversation once I cut out the subtlety. I inadvertently gasped when his arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me backwards, my back flush against his bare chest. Turning a bright shade of red, I buried my face in my pillow to hide it.

"What do you think you're doing?" There was no anger in my voice, just a hint of panic as I felt his steady breathing against my neck.

"I'm cold. Besides, you weren't complaining in the ten or so minutes in between waking and getting up to shut the curtains." As impossible as it should have been, I managed to blush even harder and covered my face with my hands.

"You were awake?" I heard him chuckle and just wished I could disappear.

"Yes, I was awake." It was, admittedly, a stupid question, and I hadn't expected him to answer so bluntly.

"Why didn't you say anything then?" The tingling feeling that I readily associated with is sharingan returned, and I shivered slightly. It only provoked him to cuddle closer, his facer nearer than before to the back of my neck as I tried to keep my mind from falling to a place where it shouldn't at the moment.

"I figured you'd just fall back asleep anyway. no point in saying anything." I nodded and swallowed quietly, unsure of how to take his insinuation. He obviously didn't mind the invasion of his personal space, but why? It wasn't because he was cold, that was for sure. Maybe I was the one who cuddled him in the first place and he was just being nice about it. Yeah, that was it. He was just being nice.

"Alright. Good night, Kakashi." I took my hands away from my face and rested one back under my pillow, and the other found a place over his around my waist. I was tired, and even as far into the gutter as my mind was finding itself, It wouldn't take me long to fall asleep. Cuddling like this made me feel really... safe.

"Sweet dreams, Sakura." I could hear the smirk in his voice, and I could swear I felt him kiss the back of my head as I started to fall asleep.

* * *

I fell asleep with my mind playing back every lewd scene featured in my favorite pink book and once I awoke to the position I was in, said scenes found their way to the front of my mind rather quickly. Kakashi was still snuggled to my back like he had been when we fell back asleep, with one very important difference. The sweater I had borrowed for a nightshirt had ridden up almost all the way, dragging the camisole underneath with it to rest bunched up just under my breasts. Kakashi's arm and hand now rested flat against my skin, his warmth no longer barricaded away from me. The sweater pushed up so far also exposed my back and I tried my hardest not to start blushing at the realization that it was his bare stomach it was pressed against.

Despite my initial shock and slight bubble of panic, the warm breath slowly ghosting the back of my neck was calming and I started to calm down, finding my situation very likable. Relaxing, I pulled my left wrist out from under the pillow to check my watch, wincing slightly as one of the bandages caught on the pillowcase. The lightness of the room suggested that morning had come and even just a short glance at the tiny silver face confirmed it and told me more specifically that it was twenty after eight. I didn't really want to get up, my current situation being particularly appealing, but my body was itching to get up and moving. I had rested more than enough to recuperate fully from the events of the last few days and the day was calling me.

Sighing softly, I lifted his arm away from my skin and shivered slightly as the cool air of the room around us rushed to take its place. I set his arm down on the bed behind me after I moved away from him slightly and slid out from under the blankets, pulling them up to cover him properly. Stretching, I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, my toes barely touching the cold floorboards. Slowly I yawned and cast a short glance back at him, assuring myself that he was sound asleep as I once again took a moment to admire the eye candy presented so openly before me.

Gently hopping off the bed, I wandered out into the main part of the apartment to find my kit. My hair was thoroughly tangled and disheveled and I had morning breath, I needed my comb and toothbrush before it drove me insane. Fishing around in the large bag for my mission kit, I opened it and took out the small pink comb and toothbrush before flicking the contents around quickly and picking out two small black hair elastics. I didn't want to put my hair up in a bun again.

Items in hand I quietly went back through the bedroom to the bathroom, shutting the door softly behind me. Turning to the slightly dingy mirror above the sink, I quickly wet the comb before I started my attempt at untangling the pink mess situated on top of my head. After five or ten minutes of fighting with it I managed to make something resembling progress and after another few minutes and a thorough wet down, I was finally able to get it to lie smooth and straight. Parting it down the middle, I took each side and plaited it neatly to fall just behind my ears and moved on to brush my teeth. Once finished, I felt a whole lot better and left the bathroom, somewhat surprised at the sight of Kakashi still sleeping exactly where I had left him.

Gently and quietly I sat down on the edge of the bed within reach of my clothes and with my back to him. I set down the comb and toothbrush on the dresser and picked up the black shirt, setting it down beside me as I reached up behind me and pulled on the collar of the sweater, tugging it up and over my head before loosely folding it and placing it on the dresser.

"How is it that you seem to have absolutely no qualms about undressing in front of me?" I raised an eyebrow at nothing before slowly turning my head to cast a glance at my apparently conscious ex-sensei. I had wondered if he was actually asleep.

"I'm not showing you anything you wouldn't see if I was in a bathing suit." He was watching me like a hawk and his expression turned slightly annoyed at my words.

"That's not the point nor is it what I meant." I raised my eyebrow out of curiosity. Was I making the untouchable Hatake Kakashi uncomfortable?

"Then I'm not sure what you meant, Kakashi. It's not like I've shown you anything that you haven't already gone out of your way to sneak a peek at, god only knows why though." I pulled the bottom of my camisole down and pulled up the shoulder strap that had slid down onto my arm as a hint of a blush tinted his pale cheeks and his expression slackened to one of disbelief.

"I'm still male, Sakura. How can you possibly feel safe acting the way you do?" I pulled on my shirt and tied it shut, once again turning away from him.

"Excuse me for thinking you could be trusted, Sensei." I may have sounded a little annoyed, but there was no real malice in my voice. I knew perfectly well that he didn't think about me like that, he was just trying to make me aware of the possible predicament I might be putting myself in with anyone else. I grabbed my pants and stood to put them on.

"Hey, don't get mad, I was just saying that you should show more caution around members of the opposite sex." I buttoned and zipped my pants, hooking my thumbs over the waistband before turning to him and casting him an amused, if skeptical, glance. Apparently surprised at my reaction, he backed away slightly from where he had come to perch on the side of the bed.

"How many men do you honestly think I feel secure enough to act the way I do alone? For a genius you sure come off as an idiot sometimes." His jaw dropped slightly and he regarded me with a more guarded scrutiny, possibly unsure of who he was really talking to. I attributed his first reaction to either my admission of trust for him or my blatant show of disrespect, while the second I merely conceded to the fact that I had changed a lot and he just hadn't gotten used to it yet. In any case, I wasn't finished yet.

"Furthermore, what do I have to be worried about? I am if nothing else, good at what I do. If I were put in a position where I had to forcefully reject someone's advances, I'm sure they wouldn't be making them again. Lastly, I don't think I have anything to fear from the male population, considering that the king of all perverts has dubbed me 'unsexy', and frankly I don't blame him. I've put too much effort into my training to leave myself much in the way of curves and the scars don't really help the image much either." He snapped to as I finished, adopting a pensive sort of glare as he started to get dressed.

"So Jiraiya's the reason for your insecure self-image?" He pulled on an undershirt and I crinkled my nose in slight annoyance. He wasn't understanding me.

"I'm not insecure, I'm realistic. Jiraiya doesn't have a thing to do with it, besides being the source of most of the scars." I stepped back towards the door to allow him access to the dresser when he slid across the bed again and planted his feet in front of it.

"Hmm, not insecure then. Inaccurate. You had the attention of just about every guy in the bar on Saturday, proving that on some level your ideas about your own sex appeal are flawed." He said this without so much as a hint of expression and I let out an exasperated breath which blew away the wispy stray hairs hanging in my face. He took out a sweater and slipped it on, still relatively expressionless.

"That dress would make anyone turn heads, Kakashi, that's what it was designed for. Honestly I think most were so surprised by the relatively uncharacteristic amount of flesh I was showing, considering that... well, I used to be a bit of a prude." I shrugged my shoulders and stepped back again as he stood, his disbelief now showing as he shook his head.

"They all wanted you, and it wasn't the dress. Sex appeal isn't all about the way you look, it's more about the attitude you convey." While I knew perfectly well that what he said was true, having the definition of sex appeal staring me right in the face, I also knew that my attitude wasn't anything special. In fact, it was probably worse than most, but he left me and went into the bathroom before I could dispute his point. It didn't occur to me to question why he was defending my apparent attractiveness as I went over to the window and opened the curtain a bit from the side to let the sun in.

It was a beautiful day out and the sun had completely dried the streets of the rainwater that had been clogging them throughout the day yesterday. I opened the window itself a crack and the warmth of the air itself surprised me. Pretty nice, at least for April weather.

"Good morning, Sakura. Sleep well?" The venomous tone to the voice owned by my dark-haired comrade didn't do well for my mood, but I opened the window enough to hop up and sit on the sill, leaning backwards out the window to speak to his face rather than around a wall.

"Except for a short interruption, yes I slept very well. You?" I raised an eyebrow as his steely gaze met my eyes. I doubted he had slept at all, since he was here now. I heard the bathroom door quietly open as Sasuke voiced his next question to me in a somewhat more irate and louder tone than normal.

"Are you sleeping with him?" Kakashi's footsteps stopped and I didn't need to look back at him to know he was listening intently to our conversation. I smirked and Sasuke's expression turned sour.

"I'd say the answer to that question is pretty obvious, or wasn't that you spying on me last night? You saw me laying right there, so why the stupid question?" Kakashi had taken up a seat on the bed and Sasuke's glare only turned more sour, while I was actually finding this pretty funny.

"Is he fucking you, Sakura?" His eyes turned red as his anger started to grow more apparent and my shoulder started to feel the telltale throbbing as the tomoe started to spin. Swallowing my temper, I decided that I'd take advantage of the opportunity to piss him off as much as possible. He made me mad, I'd do the same.

"Not at the moment apparently, as I am sitting here fully clothed talking to you, you moron. Besides, didn't we have this little chat the first day I came back? My sex life or lack thereof is no longer any of your concern. You gave that up for a psycho pedophile with a snake fetish and still didn't get what you wanted. I defeated Itachi, and you owe me a lot more than your life, forget that I'm putting up with your current behavior without a word to Tsunade about it." I had leaned over and grabbed the collar of his blue sweater, jerking him towards me as my temper flared and before I was able to control it. The throbbing in my shoulder exploded in wave after wave of nauseating stabbing pains as he grabbed onto my wrist and yanked my hand free of his shirt. I shook him off of me before hopping off the sill, afraid that the spasming in my shoulder and arm would cause me to lose grip on the window ledge and that I'd fall.

"See you later, Sasuke." The pain only grew stronger as I shut the window and stepped out of its line of sight to afford myself some comfort, bursting out laughing as I did so. For some reason the way he was acting was really funny, and I honestly had no idea why.

"What exactly is it about that exchange that you're counting as funny?" I shook my head and wiped the tears that had started to form from how hard I had been laughing. Casting a glance at him, I was startled into silence both by his newfound proximity to me and the less than pleased look on his face and backed up a step away from him.

"Jealousy's a funny thing?" I cringed back another step under the intensity of his glare, even though he hadn't moved any closer to me. I didn't like provoking this kind of ire from him and felt myself at a slight loss for any other words.

"You're comfortable letting him think we're sleeping together?" Oh, that's what this was about. I relaxed, rolling my eyes and provoking a skeptical glance to be cast my way.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we have been sleeping together. For nearly a week now, in fact." I tried to walk past him as casually as possible, but found my path blocked as he strategically leaned against the window, his body forming a bit of a barricade from the rest of the room.

"You know what I meant, and that wasn't it."

"No, you're right, that wasn't what you meant, but it was what you said. As for what you actually meant, I specifically said that we weren't intimately engaged. After the position he caught us in last night however, I seriously doubt he believes me." I hopped up onto the bed and slid across it to bypass the now curious looking copy-nin on my way to the door.

"And so I pose my question again, Sakura; You're comfortable letting him think so?" The odd inflection in his voice made me stop in my tracks and look back over my shoulder at him in confusion. He had once again silently changed his position in the room relative to me and this time, his proximity was enough that I could feel him standing right next to me. I swallowed and moved away as the six year old butterflies started to emerge again.

"The way you're acting I'd say the more relevant question is if it's bothering you. I'd let him think I liked girls if it would get him to mind his own business." I didn't receive an answer right away as I started to gather up my belongings still scattered around the apartment, folding up the green dress that was stained with blood and likely unsalvageable and placing it on the chair on top of my jounin and medic uniforms.

"So he thinks you had a one night stand and ended up in my bed. What now? He won't give up just because of that, if anything he'll only get worse. So now this begs another question; what are you planning on doing about it, Sakura?" I shrugged. I hadn't quite thought that far ahead yet, but I'd deal with it as it presented itself.

"I dunno, probably try to bribe someone into pretending to go out with me. Someone Sasuke's not likely to try and mess with, lest it become a problem for the both of us." I put my comb and toothbrush back away in my kit and shut it, piling the clothes on top of it on the chair, ready for when I left.

"What are you planning on bribing him with, and more importantly, are you willing to be answering the awkward questions he is inevitably going to ask?" I froze at the amused tone that had entered his voice and turned to face him, my hands in my pockets as I glared at him in slight annoyance to cover the blush that was starting to cover my face. His mask was pooled around his neck but he hadn't bothered to actually pull it up and the insolent smirk spread across his face was extremely revealing as to his meaning.

"Alright, I get it, what do you want?" The smile he flashed me was a killer, cute normally and without his mask on inhibited my natural ability to breathe as he stood up from leaning in the door frame and detoured close enough to give me a kiss on the forehead before heading to the kitchen. Unable to keep the red from my face, I followed him.

"I'll think about it and let you know. For now though, don't worry about it." He was pulling ingredients out of the fridge; eggs and various vegetables as a skillet already sat warming on the stove top. He didn't look at me as he roughly chopped the veggies and added them to a mixing bowl, cracking the eggs on top of them.

"Alright... just don't get it into your head that I'll hand over my books as payment for your help, okay?" He perked up, apparently not having thought of it, and I mentally smacked myself for bringing it up.

"Aw, that's kind of mean, Sakura. I'm willingly sticking myself into the line of fire and you won't even let me read a silly little book just once?" I crossed my arms, turning red again at the thought of the content of said books and the reaction I'd likely get out of him from them.

"The content isn't appropriate to be letting you read." His gaze turned back at me as he deftly poured the eggs and veggies onto the hot skillet, the amused smirk once again gracing his face.

"Not appropriate, huh? What, I wonder, could possibly be so perverted that I can't handle it?" I swallowed quietly, my nails digging slightly into the skin of my arms as my face heated further.

"Never mind, it's just not something I need you judging against me, that's all." Surprisingly, he let the subject drop as he handed me the silverware to set the table.

"You don't need to worry, Sakura. I wouldn't wheedle something like that out of you when I'd help you as a favor anyway. I won't likely ask for anything in return. Now go sit down, I'm almost done here." He turned me with one hand on my arm and gave me a gentle shove towards the table. Dumbstruck, I went and sat down, setting the table before grabbing my sandals and strapping them onto my feet. I wasn't sure why he'd do something like this without any reason and I somehow knew that there would be a price to this later on, even if he wouldn't admit it now.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" He put two plates on the table where I had set the utensils before leaving for a moment and returning with two cups of tea. I smiled gently, wondering what he could possibly think he needed permission to ask about.

"I never stopped you before, what makes you think I would now?" I crossed my legs under the table, kicking my dangling foot along to the beat of an old song that for some reason I had stuck in my head as I started to eat my breakfast, aware that he was watching me.

"Why did you get a tattoo? Particularly since you seem pretty keen on keeping it hidden." I knew he'd ask sooner or later, so I wasn't particularly surprised that he asked now, when the sight was still pretty fresh in his mind.

"Why not? It's my body to mark as I please, and I happen to think it's cute. As for why I keep it hidden, it's because I originally meant it to only be shared with somebody special." He turned pink again and stopped eating, but I hid my smile. It had still only been seen by the person I had meant to see it, save for the tattooist and Jiraiya, who had helped me design it in the first place. It was one of a kind, tailored especially for me and only me.

"Sorry, I didn't know." I resumed eating and shook my head gently.

"Relax, if I had truly minded, I would've at least tried to mangle you when I got back to the campsite, just like you apparently expected me to."

"So why didn't you?"

"Because if our situations were reversed I probably would've done the same thing. I just would've been more careful about masking my chakra when I turned to leave, although I expect you were pretty preoccupied with the nosebleed you were sporting at the time." Finishing up my breakfast, I leaned back in my chair, tea in hand as I carefully peered through apparently downcast eyes at him. No reaction whatsoever, beside the slight pink that was slowly subsiding.

"Guess I'll have to be more careful next time." He returned to eating, while I drained my tea with just a hint of a smile.

"Why would you bother?" I got up and brought my dishes to the kitchen to wash them.

"Just because." I jumped away from the breath at my ear, earning myself a swollen sore bump as I ended up smashing the back of my head into the cupboard door. Rubbing the sore spot gently, I turned a bright shade of pink at the teasing smile he flashed me just before I smacked his arm for surprising me like that. Turning back to the dishes, I resumed washing them, his now included with mine as I inwardly smiled at myself. He left me to it as he left the kitchen, his hands in his pockets as he hummed an unfamiliar tune. I finished washing the dishes as I contemplated exactly what I was getting myself into, recruiting Kakashi as my mock boyfriend.

While I was entertaining my situation in my head, a loud and insistent pounding threatened to break the front door down while I groaned slightly, recognizing the signature knock.

"Oi, Kakashi!" I dried my hands and leaned on the counter, wondering exactly how this was going to be explained. It was too early in the morning for me to be here for any legitimate reason, and I inwardly praised my foresight at getting fully dressed before having breakfast.

"My my, it seems all my students are just dying to see me this morning. What brings you here, Naruto-kun?" Mentally I smacked my forehead while outwardly I made my way into view of the door.

"Sakura's missing again. Sasuke said he found her yesterday, but now nobody can find her again. Wait... what do you mean, all your students?" I coughed, drawing the blond's attention to me leaning in the kitchen door frame. His jaw dropped and skin paled after a minute and just before he turned on Kakashi, newly incensed at the conclusion I knew he'd jump to.

"What did you do to her, you old pervert?!" Naruto took a swing at him and I darted towards them, stepping in so that the blond's wayward strike was suddenly caught in my relatively smaller fist.

"If it's me you want to see, I'm right here. Curb your temper, Naruto." He looked at me in shock and I let go of his fist, stepping past him out of the apartment so that his rage might not be directed at our mutual ex-sensei.

"Sakura...Kakashi-sensei... but... no way..." I leaned backwards against the wall beside the door, arms crossed across my chest as the door to the apartment shut, but I didn't hear it lock.

"You were looking for me, Naruto? Sorry I ended up bailing on you on Saturday, I wasn't really in the best condition. How're Hinata-chan and your little girl?" Despite my attempt, he wasn't about to be distracted from the subject at hand, his own confusion too pressing.

"What are you doing at Kakashi's place this early in the morning when nobody's seen you in five days?" I raised an eyebrow at my former teammate, wondering if he actually didn't get it or if he was just in denial.

"I spent the night. I was in bad condition after my birthday and I ended up passing out here." The look he gave me said very plainly that he didn't believe me.

"For five days? I'm not that stupid, whatever you think of me, Sakura." I shook my head.

"No, for four days. Last night I stayed here of my own volition." Once again, his expression showed nothing but disbelief.

"No, there's just no way Sakura! He's our sensei, for Christ's sake! He's... he's an old pervert, as bad as ero-sennin! What's going on with you, you loved Sasuke for so long and now that he-" I stood up straight and raised my hands to stop his misguided ranting. I didn't want to hear it.

"You're not the one in my position, so what's your problem?" He smacked his forehead.

"What happened to you? You aren't the same girl who used to be my teammate. Where did she go?" I leaned back again, this time with my hands clasped behind my head.

"I grew up, Naruto. That's all. Sure I've changed, but can you say with any honesty that anyone of us hasn't? Even you have, my transformation was just a little more profound, that's all." His mouth gaped open, but he was seemingly more calm now, absorbing my words with a little distaste but still some understanding.

"Sasuke... does he know about this? He's going to be heartbroken, Sakura. Did you even think about how weird this would be to everyone else?" I couldn't believe I was hearing this from him, of all people.

"Did you stop to think that maybe this wasn't an impulsive decision, that maybe I've had feelings for him for a long time now? Did you stop to think that maybe at one point I got sick of waiting for someone who's both emotionally retarded and, quite frankly an ass? Did you stop to think at all before jumping down my throat about where I decide to spend the night?" My little rant, while still calm, had effectively managed to wipe off any expression left on the agitated blond's face and sent him on the defensive.

"Sakura, don't be mad at me, I'm just thinking of all my friends here. Personally, as long as he treats you right, I don't really care who you date. Even hearing that rumor about you and ero-sennin... well, that was just weird, but if that was what you wanted, then I wouldn't have said anything about it. I'd sympathize with you even if the entire village was against you, I faced a lot of disapproval after that fling with Anko... and Hinata's family doesn't like me one bit, except her and Neji, so I still get pretty bad reception there too." I smiled, glad that it wasn't his personal opinion that me and Kakashi were a bad idea.

"Oh! I was going to bug him about something I heard about last night from Genma, when I reminded him about training today, but I guess it makes sense now... Say, what does he look like under that mask? Sasuke and I still have that bet going, good thing you bought out of it before you left!" His voice lilted as he asked about the mask, but I was kinda stuck on the first part.

"He's pretty damned hot. What did you hear that you came to bug him about?" He looked disappointed at my slightly vague answer, but he answered my question all the same.

"He hasn't been seen with those stupid pervy books of his and he's been acting weird. Genma and Tsunade-baachan and a bunch of other jounin think he's either got it bad for someone or that he's got a secret girlfriend, but obviously that's you, right? Anyway, Hinata wants to see you when you have a minute to go visit, and tell Kakashi we still expect him to be there for training today! Bye!" He vanished in a puff of red smoke, while I was left there with my jaw hanging open to gather my shattered thoughts.

Kakashi had his eye on someone, and here I thought his willingness to help me might have been a good place to start, maybe I could have gotten him to like me back. Guess that's not happening now. Why now, anyway? No girlfriend for over ten years and now, after I gave up trying to give up, he gets interested in someone. Why couldn't god ever be fair, for once?

"He gone?" I snapped out of my dismal thoughts and made my face assume an expression of passive happiness. As long as he was happy, I'd be happy.

"Yeah. Told me to tell you that he still expects you to show up for training today." I stood up away from the wall and passed him as I entered the apartment, closing the door behind me.

"Yeah yeah, I know. Same as every other Friday we're all in town." He didn't look particularly thrilled, but I could only imagine that sitting in on Naruto and whoever else's training sessions was pretty well a waste of time to the elite jounin and ex-ANBU.

"He wants me to go visit Hinata-chan, so I'm going to go. I have somewhere else to visit first and then I want to get back to my own training." I crossed to the armchair and scooped up my clothes after I strapped my bag on and smiled sweetly back at him as I went to leave.

"If you want to get back to training, the rest of Team 7 get together every Friday that all three of us are in town. Training ground 4, one o clock, if you care to finish off the team again. See you later." He pulled me back by the bag strap long enough to place a masked kiss on top of my head and I turned pink as I waved and left.

* * *

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you follow me home?" I had gotten home and the first thing I was confronted with was my completely overturned bedroom and I wasn't particularly happy about it. Second thing I was confronted with was was Kakashi sitting leisurely on my bedroom window sill, but that was a marginally better sight.

"Nothing better to do." I rolled my eyes and started righting my pigsty of a room, first by peeling my entire collection of underwear off of the floor and tossing them into the wash to hopefully wash out the varnish that had dried to them from the hardwood. That done, I returned and righted my bed, unmaking it completely and tossing the rainwater stained sheets into the laundry basket before retrieving a spare set and remaking the bed. I wasn't all that thrilled about the color or the pattern of the only sheets I could find that fit my bed, but I didn't have the luxury to be picky until I had the time to go shopping for a set that wasn't pink and covered in cherry blossoms. God, how cliche.

"Are you sure there isn't somewhere you'd rather be? I'm going to finish cleaning up and then I'm going to go have a shower and get dressed to go see Hinata-chan. Nothing really exciting going on." I picked up the scrolls and weapons strewn about the floor and put them all away on the shelves neatly, like they had been before and lastly straightened up the desk, noticing that the picture of Team 7 as genins was now situated in a shattered frame. Temper temper, Sasuke.

"I'm alright, really. What did Naruto say to you? You seem pretty out of sorts." I shrugged, guessing that my efforts to seem unaffected were actually having the opposite effect.

"Just brought my attention to the fact that you seem to have dropped a certain habit and what people think of it, that's all." He raised an eyebrow, probably surprised.

"So, what's the speculation regarding my recent lack of Icha Icha? I suspect that that's what this is about, after all." How was I going to say this without sounding jealous? Ugh.

"Apparently it's that you've got a girl on your mind or in your bed and that you don't need them anymore. I doubt it, because otherwise you wouldn't be agreeing to help me deter Sasuke's attention, now would you?" I shrugged again and he did the happy eye crease.

"Does me having a girl on my mind bother you, Sakura?" I crossed my arms in mock annoyance.

"Why should it? I just figured that if there's another girl in the picture you'd rather be pursuing her than pretending to have a girlfriend." I shrugged my shoulders in apparent nonchalance before leaving the bedroom to go retrieve my birthday gifts that were still out by the front door. Arms piled high, I returned to the bedroom and emptied the bag and box out onto the bed, putting away the clothes and finding a place for everything else.

"Who says I can't do both?" I picked out my jounin sweats, not entirely displeased at the color Tsunade had given me. The dark red was actually not bad looking, but it would look pretty odd underneath of the olive green vest. Grabbing a wrap that had somehow not made it onto the floor, I turned my back on him as I started to head to the bathroom.

"You'll have trouble getting her in the first place with that attitude, because generally women expect some level of fidelity from their lovers. I'm not holding you to any promises you think you've made, so don't think you owe it to me if you'd rather go pursue her." Now, I was standing in the door to my room and he was sitting on the window ledge, so how he got in front of me to stop me from walking away when you can't use jutsus anywhere in my house, I'll probably never know.

"Honestly, once this was explained to her, I'd probably actually get brownie points for helping out a friend in need, don't you think?" I leaned against the wall, trying not to show my slight annoyance while I waited for him to get out of my way.

"Guess it depends who the girl you're after is and how understanding she is." Honestly, that wasn't quite true, almost any girl would have some sort of sympathy for his situation, but still, I wasn't going to openly admit that he was right.

"Is that so? Who might not be understanding enough, Sakura?" If my arms weren't full I probably would've started to nudge him down the hallway so that I could go have my shower, but they were, so I couldn't, and I just stood there and blew the stray hairs out of my face in a more blatant show of annoyance than was strictly necessary.

"I don't know, I haven't been around the village for six years to know everyone here anymore. Can I go have my shower now please?" He moved down the hall and I stopped in the laundry room to put the load of underpants into the dryer and grab a towel before heading to the bathroom and locking the door behind me.

"You can't think of anyone because nobody in this village is that callous, admit it." I shook my head and pulled my hair out of its pigtails while I raised my voice so that he could hear me through the door.

"Maybe not in this village, but you never said she was in this village, did you? Now, you really don't have to wait for me, you can go." So saying, I turned on the shower and stripped while the water heated up.

Testing the water, I got in when it wasn't cold anymore and the first thing I did was shampoo my hair. As nice as Kakashi smelled, it was really more appealing on him than it was on me, and on me I preferred mint. I washed up quickly but very carefully, making sure that the stitches on my leg and arm as well as the bare nail beds on my left hand were especially clean and not getting infected. Satisfied, I shut of the shower and hopped out to dry off. I could hear that the dryer was already done and apparently I wasn't paying very much attention when I left the washroom drying my hair, because when I took the towel away I was met with one silver-haired jounin who hadn't gotten the hint the first time that he was supposed to have left already.

"Well, now at least I know that pink actually is your natur-" He never got to finish the sentence once my fist found his face and he went sprawling down the hall while I attempted to cover up as much as I could. If his nose wasn't bleeding a second ago, it was now and it was likely joined by a bloody lip too.

"I thought I told you to get lost, what the hell are you still doing here?!" The only thing that saved him from another hit was his speed, which carried him out the window where I wouldn't dare go in just a towel. Bounding up onto the bed I slammed the window shut and slapped the seal back onto it before shutting the curtain as I fumed. It took a lot before I would call somebody a pervert, considering my preferred reading material, but that stupid comment would have earned it if he were still here to hear it.

"Stupid pervert." Still made me feel better to say it, I thought as I tried to calm myself to a point where I could rationally think. I finished drying myself as I went back to the laundry room where I had left my clothes before the shower. Forget training today, the last two people I wanted to see now were Sasuke and Kakashi, let alone in the same field at the same time.

That being decided, I figured that wearing civilian clothes would be preferential to wearing the sweats and vest. Digging around among the clean load of panties, I picked out a pair of nice lacy black ones that I had always liked and put them on before wrapping my chest up and hanging up my towel to dry. I took the sweats and headed back to my room to put them away, at the same time picking up the black skirt and white sleeveless top Ino had given me. I put on the top, checking in the mirror that it wasn't too short and started to put on the skirt.

"Calmed down yet?" Zipping the skirt up and buttoning the waistband shut, I curled my fist into a ball as I turned and I couldn't keep the seething tone out of my voice as I glared at the man leaning so nonchalantly in my bedroom door frame.

"What's wrong, didn't I hit you hard enough the first time, you pervert?" He didn't move even as I advanced towards him, but upon seeing the livid bruise spreading over the entirety of the left side of his face, I crossed my arms over my chest, somehow unable to hit him again.

"It was an accident, Sakura, and I'm sorry."

"There was a good twenty or so second window to at least be discreet about it, and you weren't. You were gawking." I was aware of how much I looked like a pouting teenager at the moment as i backed up and sat down on the bed cross-legged, I just didn't care.

"I didn't expect you to walk out naked." He wasn't looking at me and I wasn't looking at him, instead moving the curtain to stare outside.

"It's my house and I had told you to leave. It's my right to wander around in as much or as little clothing as I please, or at least I thought it was." He finally turned his gaze in my direction but I didn't return it. As much as I was trying to keep my temper curbed, I didn't know if I could do it for much longer.

"You have no problem undressing in front of me normally. What's the difference now?" I swallowed and bit my bit to keep control as I got up and strapped on my sandals, running my fingers through my hair before smoothing it back into a ponytail and securing it with a handy elastic band.

"There's a big difference between showing you my back with panties on and full-frontal nudity. Figure it out." I pulled my window and let the seal flutter to the bed as I hopped outside and shut the window again. I walked about ten steps away from the house before forming the seals to teleport to where I needed to be now.

* * *

"Hey there, Mom. I'm sorry I didn't come see you earlier, and that I wasn't here for the funeral. I know you wouldn't want me to cry, so I won't. I've really grown since you saw me last, I'm not the whiny little girl I used to be, and I'm a lot stronger too. I think you'd be proud of me, but then again you always were, weren't you? I do wish that I was as pretty as you were when you were my age... why can't I have things both ways? I can't be pretty and still compete with the guys strength-wise, I already know that. It kind of isn't fair though, every other girl my age was sweet enough and cute enough to snag the guy they wanted, but I'm stuck with a psycho stalker who's chasing me for whatever reason and a crush that's going to remain unrequited because if he's not being an idiot and making me mad at him he's being too damn cute and I can't say what I want to say because I know he's way out of my league!" I slammed my fist into the grass in front of the memorial where I knelt before leaning forward and wiping my mother's name clean of the dirt that rested over it.

Mom had been an ANBU, a strategist specifically. That's where I had gotten my smarts from, whereas my pink hair and green eyes were Haruno family traits and came from my father. Mom... you shouldn't have been on that mission, so why did you go? Why would you risk your life to see him when it was obvious that he didn't want to see you? You should have given up on Dad when he became a missing-nin, so why couldn't you have just left it alone?!

For the first time since her death I let myself accept the loss I had been actively ignoring for half a year, the loss of the only person left who loved me completely unconditionally. I may have felt like crying, but I didn't. She wouldn't have wanted me to, she would have wanted me to let her spirit rest without the burden of tears.

Standing up, I kissed my fingertips and touched her name again before I turned away and ran smack dab into someone who was getting slightly annoying this morning. I didn't say a word as I walked around him and left the clearing on my way to the hospital.

* * *

"Hinata-chan, she's so beautiful! What'd you name her?" I took a peek at the sleeping little blond in the hospital bassinet and she just melted my heart, she was that adorable. She was just so perfect, from the wispy blond shock of hair atop her head, to the faint birthmarks on her face that looked suspiciously like Naruto's 'whiskers', to the tiny body all bundled up in the orange fox-eared sleeper she was bundled into. The dark-haired woman sat up in bed gingerly with a slightly pained but very bright smile.

"Uzumaki Nami. She looks just like daddy, don't you sweetie?" At hearing her mother's soft voice her eyelids fluttered open ever so slightly to reveal pearly white irises to match the woman sitting on the bed before lapsing back into sleep again. I sat down on the edge of the bed by Hinata's legs as she sat back against the pillows.

"She looks like both of you, and I've never seen a cuter little girl, Hinata-chan. You two are very lucky." Hinata nodded, looking sleepy as she took my hand. Her recovery from the surgery was far from over, and I couldn't help but feel guilty for bugging her when she wasn't actually ready for it.

"If you think she's cute, you should see Neji-niisan's twins... Tenten was already let out though, she'll be at home taking care of them." Twins? Wow. I know twins sometimes run in families, but wow all the same.

"Sakura, thank you. I heard what you did to Naruto on your birthday, and after such a big fight too. He's... a bit of a handful, but don't hold anything against him, he was just worried about us." I patted the sleepy woman's smooth black hair and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I know, and if you see him, Kakashi deserves your thanks more than I do. I wouldn't have been able to control Naruto myself. Now, you need your rest, you probably shouldn't be having too many visitors. Sleep well, Hinata-chan." I excused myself from the room to allow her to get her rest. God knows she probably wasn't getting any when Naruto was around. As soon as I softly shut the door and turned around to leave I once again ran into the man who seemed hellbent on irritating me today. If we weren't in a hospital I would've yelled at him and probably hit him, but the shock and meaningfulness of him willingly setting foot within twenty yards of this place was enough to placate my wrath. He must really want to talk to me, huh?

"Come with me." I kept a terse note to my voice as I took his arm and dragged him out of the hospital, attracting the attention of medics and patients alike as I'm sure we made a pretty odd picture, a scrawny pink-haired little girl dragging the renowned copy-nin OUT of a hospital. Once outside, I found a bench around the side of the building in the outdoor lunch area and motioned for him to sit. He did so without so much as a word and I knelt down on the bench next to him and pulled down just the side of his mask to heal the swelling and bruising along his jawline. I hadn't broken it, but it was still probably pretty tender, which was a lot more pleasant than the condition of his nose, I found with a little guilt as I examined it. I had really gotten him good, but hey, nothing I couldn't fix.

"For a genius, you can really be an idiot sometimes." I finished fixing him up and stood up, or at least I attempted to. He pulled me back down, placing something in my hand as he rested his forehead on my shoulder.

"I know. I really didn't mean to look you know." I took a look at what he had given to me and shook my head, giggling softly. The sound seemed to perk him up and I gently shoved him off of my shoulder.

"You're giving me a daffodil as a peace offering? How cute. I'm getting flowers for beating up on my ex-sensei. Maybe if I pummel you a little harder I'll get a kiss next time." I added a teasing lilt to my voice to make it seem like I was joking as I bopped him on the nose with the flower and stood up, sniffing the thoughtful gift as I walked away. We were being stared at by everyone within a 50-foot radius as I sensed Kakashi get up off of the bench and start to follow me.

Among our audience were two positively aghast jounin staring openly, one with black hair and eyes, the other with shaggy brown hair and his ever present senbon dangling predictably from his slack lips. I winked and stuck my tongue out at them as I twirled the flower between my fingers.

"I take it you forgive me?" I smirked as he caught up and wrapped his arm gently around my shoulders. I watched Sasuke's stare turned murderous and Genma's dive even deeper into disbelief as he did so and I decided to tease a bit.

"You're getting there. Guess I don't have anything to hide now though, do I?" I turned pink and nearly let out a muffled squeak of surprise when I felt him nuzzle into the side of my neck.

"Nope, I've seen it all now." I smacked him gently.

"What'd you think then?" I was kind of curious, but I honestly can't believe I said what I was thinking. If my hands weren't already occupied I would've smacked myself.

"I dunno if it was worth the punch in the face..." I turned bright red and smacked him on the arm a little less playfully.

"You're so mean!"

"You shouldn't be so touchy, I was kidding Sakura." Guess we were going to play pretend after all.


	16. 15

**GR's Note:**_ I don't have a specific updating schedule, and I probably never will. I update when I can, because I am incredibly busy and I only have a few hours every night to do everything I can. Thanks for everyone's interest and encouragement, I appreciate it greatly!_

-15-

"What are you doing?" Up, down.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Up, down.

"I can't see you." Up, down.

"Well what does it **feel** like I'm doing then, smartass?" Up, down.

"It feels like you're groping me." I stopped rummaging around in the cluttered shuriken pouch long enough to flick him on the back of the head, which didn't stop his push-ups and only won me an amused chuckle out of him. Continuing my search I located my prize right at the back and bottom of the bag and pulled out a skinny green novel. Up, down.

"I wasn't groping, I just happened to cop a feel while looking for something to read." I lay down flat on my stomach stretched across his back and opened the book to page one, noting with a grin that half the spine hadn't even been cracked yet. Kakashi had refused outright to remove his vest and sweater for training and I had eventually gotten bored of trying to imagine the muscle formations underneath his vestments while he was using me as weight for his push-ups. Icha Icha was always a good cure for boredom. Up, down.

"I see. Why were you looking for something to read in my weapon pouch?" Up, down. I tried to keep relatively still, because I knew firsthand how distracting living weight could be while training. Up, down.

"Because I was mad at you when I left home this morning and left all of **my **books at home, along with almost all of my weapons." Up, down, flip the page.

"So you're reading Icha Icha Tactics?" Up, down.

"Well, I would've been reading part 2 of Reverse, but again, I left it at home." Up, down, flip the page.

"I can't believe you read porn in public." Up, down.

"Look who's talking!" Up, down.

"I've been doing it for years and apparently it gets weird when I stop." Up, down, flip the page.

"Gotta start somewhere, ne? It's good control training anyway, and the stories are good." Up, down.

"You probably don't want the reputation, Sakura. You're a girl, you'll end up with one worse than Anko's." Up, down.

"You know, I honestly don't think that reading a naughty novel is going to damage my rep any more than that rumour about sleeping with Jiraiya has. Though you can be the first to say 'I told you so' when I get called a sadistic, salacious snakecharmer." Up, down, flip the page.

"I think the fact that you're a girl and can actually stand his companyactually helps rather than hurts you." Up, down. Interesting how he decided to ignore my 'snakecharmer' comment, although that could be because Mitarashi Anko was a fellow jounin and probably one of his closer acquaintances.

"How do you figure?" Up, down.

"I'm betting that it's given you somewhat of an understanding of the way the male mind works, and that knowledge gives you an edge over guys, particularly while negotiating with them." Up, down.

"The only thing it's taught me is that certain areas of the female anatomy are like magnets to the male eyes, and it's pretty much a universal reaction, so I've gotten the insight to reevaluate my definition of the word 'pervert'." Up, down, flip the page.

"That right there is still more than Naruto's learned in his care, and he's been there much longer than you were. Besides, whether you realize it or not you learned a lot more than that." Up, down.

"If you say so. Hey, where are they, they're late!" Up, down. I had taken a look at my watch just now and realized that it was almost one-thirty. Up, down.

"I'm never on time, so they stopped bothering a long time ago. Expect them to show up closer to two." Up, down, flip the page.

"So why did we bother to show up early?" Up, down.

"You said you wanted to get back to training." Up, down.

"Yeah, laying here reading is such great training." Up, down, flip the page.

"Stop being so impatient, I'm almost done." Up, down.

"I'm not being impatient, I'm merely pointing out that my training hasn't actually started yet. Take all the time you want, I've barely finished the first chapter." Up, down.

"Do you seriously enjoy reading those books or are you just trying to tease me?" Up, down, flip the page.

"You know that bet I won with Jiraiya at the expense of my hands? I got more than a powerful technique out of it, you know." Up, down.

"Don't change the subject, I asked you a question." Up, down.

"And you call **me** impatient. No, Jiraiya's forfeit from that bet was a signed copy of every volume of both series' **plus** the limited edition Icha Icha Violence book **with** all the extras. I get every new volume signed and hand-delivered as they are published until he finishes the Tactics series. Would I bother asking for anything like that if I didn't enjoy the books?" He had stopped his push-ups and I rolled off of his back, landing on the soft grass with my hand stretched towards him to hand him back his book. The look he was giving me as he sat up on the grass and took the novel back was somewhere between amazement and amusement, and I rearranged my skirt to cover my thighs properly, in case Naruto and Sasuke came early and accidentally got an eyeful of leg.

"How long have you been reading them? Since you were 18?" I shook my head, reaching up beside my face to pick at a blade of grass that was tickling my nose.

"16 actually. Just don't let that little bit of info slip to Tsunade, I don't want to get Jiraiya in trouble because I 'borrowed' the manuscript he was writing." He raised an eyebrow and his expression and voice went farther towards the amused end of the scale.

"You stole an unfinished manuscript out from under his nose?" I laughed, still picking at the grass.

"His nose was buried between the slats of a hot springs fence, and I was curious." He coughed, going straight to surprised.

"Wow, a girl who came across him peeping at a hot springs and didn't do anything about it? You really are a mystery anymore, aren't you?" I held a blade of grass in front of my face and twirled it between my fingers before blowing it away.

"I caught on rather quickly to the way he worked. If I didn't interfere in his research, he became more willing to train me. I'm actually surprised at how long it took Naruto to catch on to that particular tactic. The training he volunteered was infinitely better than the stuff you had to drag him away from his work for." I got up, ready to begin my own training, and quickly found the largest tree in the area.

"He didn't teach you anything like the rasengan or summoning, did he?" I shook my head.

"It wouldn't be practical for me to use either technique, forget that I had figured out the rasengan ages ago by myself. Remember, I'm supposed to be a medic, so I'm supposed to conserve my chakra and maximize it's output. Assassination techniques like the chidori and rasengan use up too much chakra to be practical for me, and Jiraiya guards the secret of those toads like nothing else. Do you have any wire or string on you?" He had followed me and sat down at the base of the trunk, handing me a roll of trap wire at my request. I cut a three or so foot length off of the roll and handed it back to him before hopping up the tree's lower branches to find a suitably sized one. Picking one, I took the wire and tied it around my thighs so that my skirt wouldn't flop down when I went to start my exercises.

"I see. So what did he teach you?" I hooked my knees over the branch so that I was hanging upside down and noticed that he had taken a seat on the larger branch below and slightly in front of me. I started on what was basically the equivalent of midair sit-ups, pulling myself up with my hands behind my head so that I touched my knees with my elbows. _One, two, three_. 200 of these, then push-ups.

"Helped me train the skills I already had, helped me learn ninjutsu that correspond well with my elements. He even helped me by allowing me to practice my genjutsu on." Actually, that was the most useful part of him being around. _Five, six, seven, eight._

"So what was the point in leaving? You could've stayed and asked me to train you." _Eleven, twelve, thirteen._

"Sensei, you largely ignored me as your student previously. Not that I blame you, compared to you and the boys, all geniuses, I kind of sucked as a shinobi. I don't think I would have gotten the best reception if I had asked, and even if I had, and you did agree, I don't think I could've handled it." _Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three._

"You were an excellent kunoichi before you left, I would've been happy to train you if you had asked." _Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine._

"Like I've already said, I don't think I could've handled it." _Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four._

"I wouldn't have started you out with anything you couldn't handle, Sakura." _Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty._

"From what I remember of the time we did spend together, you can be a bit of a slave-driver during training, no offense." _Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven_.

"Only to the boys." _Forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one_.

"You would've treated me differently because I was a girl, a perfectly good reason not to train with you." _Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight_.

"What?" _Fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one_.

"I don't want preferential treatment, Kakashi. I never have. I **like **being treated like I'm strong enough to compete without a handicap." _Seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-three_.

"Okay, now you aren't making any sense. You didn't want to ask me to train you because I'm a slave-driver, but you didn't want any special treatment either?" _Eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two_.

"You're misunderstanding me entirely. I don't mind that you're a hard trainer, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without working hard, and you can't possibly be worse than Tsunade. It's that fact that I knew you **wouldn't** have been that I wouldn't have been able to handle, do you understand?" _Eighty-nine, ninety, ninety-one_.

"I think so. So, what makes you willing to train with me now?" _Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight_.

"You respect my ability now. If we were to spar you wouldn't be able to hold back, and I mostly train myself anyway." _Ninety-nine, one hundred_. I caught onto the branch and hauled myself up for a quick breather. A week and a half without training and I was already growing soft. Blech.

"You think you've caught up with me that much, huh? I'd say you're getting a bit cocky, Sakura." I rolled my eyes.

"Prove me wrong. No sharingan, no weapons. We spar on equal ground, a fair fight." I hauled myself to a standing position on the branch and untied my skirt before jumping off and rolling when I hit the ground to soften my landing after the 50 foot drop. Kakashi landed next to me as I sat and started to remove my shoes. Taijutsu in heels was not my favorite activity in the world.

"Sounds fair, sort of. What do we get if we win?" Putting my shoes safely off to the side, I pulled out my ponytail and retied it up into a messy bun.

"You can pick your prize, shy of me handing over any of my books, and if I win, I just proved myself right, so I think that's fair." He nodded and I bounced away to a more open area away from the trees.

"I'll take that, although I want another condition in place. No chakra, which means no jutsus and no brute strength. I think that's fair, don't you?" I shrugged.

"Whatever you say, it's still your funeral." My strength wasn't totally chakra-based anymore, and my speed was completely my own.

"You know, I never thought of you as one to wear black." _Okay, why are you commenting on my clothing now?_

"What do you mean? I've been wearing black my entire life, Kakashi." He gave me an interested look.

"Is that so? I always pegged you as a little too innocent for it. Lacy ones especially." I barely had time to react before he launched his assault under the cover of this particular diversionary tactic. Smirking, I still managed to actively doge his strikes, fast as he was. No chakra meant nothing to take the blow if I did get hit, and the difference in size between us meant I would get sent flying with a clean strike.

"Now what exactly would make you assume I was too innocent to wear black lace? You know, considering that I just admitted to have been reading illustrated porn since I was 16?" His comment had been meant to draw out my temper, obviously, but I wasn't about to let such a dumb comment rattle me. I had better control than that. He remained on the offensive and I on the defensive, taking a hit here and there when I absolutely needed to, but never allowing it to be a clean hit. I'd wait until he got comfortable and let down his guard a bit before attempting a counter.

"You also said you used to be a prude and you haven't really had time to go shopping since you got back." I felt a warm tingle slowly worm it's way up my spine and without thinking too much about it I withdrew the senbon I was always armed with and teleported behind his back to cleanly implant them in his spine near the base of his skull. Paralyzed from the neck down and probably pretty shocked, he crumpled to his knees and I caught him before he fell back, to avoid driving the needles in too far and causing permanent damage.

"Cheater. You said no weapons and I said no jutsus." I sat him up and poked his neck next to the embedded spikes.

"You're one to talk, I said no sharingan either. Nobody cheats on me and gets away with it, Kakashi." I sat down on the ground behind him, my back leaning against his to keep him upright. I wouldn't remove the temporary paralysis just yet, I wasn't that nice.

"And how, pray tell, did you know I was using my sharingan? I never even uncovered it."

"It was uncovered enough for you to see me and that was cheating. As for how I knew, let's just say the magician won't give up her secrets so easily."

"Alright, are you going to remove the senbon?"

"In a moment. What would you have asked for if you had won?" I reached up behind my head and pinched one of the needles right up next to his skin so that he knew his answer decided whether I removed it now or later.

"Who says I haven't won? We're at a draw, you cheated too." I twitched and let go of the senbon, which provoked an annoyed sigh to escape my captive.

"Hate to tell you this, but considering that you can't maove and I can, I'd say I won. Answer the question and I'll free your legs." Dirty tactics, but wasn't the point of being a shinobi to use stealth and subterfuge to get what you wanted? Besides, it was kinda nice just sitting here next to him. He smelled nice.

"I don't know yet." I let out a disappointed sigh but pulled out the promised weapon, cleaning it on my shirt as I healed the tiny puncture wound through the minute hole in his undershirt.

"How can you not know?" I crossed my arms, rolling the senbon between my thumb and index finger. I could feel him fidget as he slowly regained mobility and the numbness faded from his legs.

"Well there's more than one thing I want, so I can't decide. Remove the other one." I snorted.

"I could just put this one back and leave you helpless, you know. What can't you decide between?" I felt him stand and I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees.

"Why does it matter? It's irrelevant now, so just remove the needle. You win." I took the one still in my hand and traced a path along the visible scars on my shins.

"Humor me, or you can wait for Naruto to come and have him remove it." He nudged my lower back with what I assumed was his foot, but found out in a second that it wasn't.

"Sakura, you're pushing it." His voice came from directly behind me, dangerously low, and I turned to see that he was balanced on the balls of his feet, one knee resting against my spine, and he looked about as happy as he sounded. I pushed myself away and stood up, walking back over to my sandals and putting them back on.

"Who's pushing it? I imagine Naruto won't be too gentle removing that senbon, might permanently damage the nerves you know." He really didn't have much of a choice.

"Ask me something else." A growl of sorts had entered his voice and I rolled my eyes. I wasn't in too much of a mood to actually make him mad.

"Forget it, just come here." He did so and I removed the offending projectile, healed the puncture and slipped the needles back into my wraps. I turned and climbed the tree to resume my own training and leave him to his.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" I got up to my previous perch and retied my skirt before hooking my knees over the branch and starting back at my training.

"If you don't think it's worth telling me, it's probably not worth hearing." He had followed me, so I didn't have to raise my voice. _Three, four_.

"You know, you used to be a lot more persistent." _Seven, eight_. He was sitting on the branch next to my legs, his feet dangling down towards me. _Nine, ten_.

"I've learned to pick my battles and to push it when it's worth the shove." _Twelve, thirteen_.

"If the answer wasn't worth it then why ask the question?" _Fifteen, sixteen_.

"I was curious." _Eighteen, nineteen_. Why was he pressing this? Getting him to talk used to be like pulling teeth, forget him actually asking about us. I just knew better than to push my luck where the repercussions wouldn't be worth it. Physical pain was one thing, but intentionally creating waves was another. _Twenty-one, twenty-two_.

"Curiosity killed the cat." _What the hell?_ I caught the branch and glared at him, as if to ask him what the hell he was continuing this idiotic discussion for.

"Thanks for the advice, but I'm more of a dog person myself." He had no response for this and I dropped back down to continue with my training as I felt our teammates enter the training area and approach us. About damned time, too. It was well past two-thirty now. _Twenty-two, twenty-three_.

"Sakura? We should probably move. Now." I didn't even get time to react appropriately to his warning, or in fact react at all before I felt a very large flare in one chakra signature below us that was almost painful in itself and I was roughly grabbed and yanked off of my branch. My eyes shut on instinct and in the second or so it took to fight back against that instinct I was met with a lot of pain. First a very distinct burn that felt like my entire left foot and shin were engulfed in flame, then sharp pain in my outer thighs where the wire had been wrapped, before I felt it give, as if the wire had snapped from a huge amount of force being applied to it. Almost simultaneous with the wire cutting into my legs was the concussive pang against the back of my head and shoulders as I was slammed against something rough and hard, as well as a subsequent scraping sensation as I slid down a few inches.

As I did open my eyes, the back draft hit my face and legs, causing me to snap them shut against the heat and take a second to realize exactly where I was. Of course I knew it had been Kakashi to pull me out of the way of what I assumed was Sasuke's grand fireball, he was the only one close enough to touch me. I hadn't expected to be clinging to the sleeves of his sweater with my face buried in his shoulder and my back pressed firmly against a tree while he was holding us up with nothing but chakra and one foot up on a very spindly looking branch and I was sitting on his thigh, my legs practically wrapped around his waist.

"Let me go, idiot, I'll kill him!" As the heat passed I opened my eyes to see Sasuke trying to climb the trees to get to our height and Naruto trying to make sure he failed, with moderate success. The smoking absence of the upper part of the tree we had been located in before only confirmed that it had been Sasuke's signature jutsu that had undoubtedly been aimed at us and my mood darkened as I let go of Kakashi's arms, placing my hands against the tree behind me to thread enough chakra into the bark to hold myself up.

"You alright? You can let go now, I'm holding on." He did so, and I immediately lamented the loss of our newfound proximity as he landed gracefully on a thick branch some ways below us. Ignoring the pain, which in actuality was probably not the best decision I could have made considering that I could feel how deep the wire had cut into my thighs and that the split ends were still caught in the wounds, I favored speed over caution and jumped straight to the ground, landing in a roll once again to avoid a broken ankle. Pushing myself up on my hand and knees I got up and straight away yelled up into the trees, my anger reaching a fever pitch as the adrenaline rush started in earnest.

"**Sasuke, you fucking bastard! Get your scrawny ass down here and leave him the hell out of this!**" Moments later he came plummeting down to the ground, landing hard on his back in the turf at the base of the tree, followed shortly by Naruto landing on him and forcefully pinning him to the ground.

"Get away from him or you'll just be collateral damage." Naruto apparently knew not to mess with me and jumped away as I aimed a chakra-enhanced punch straight for the dark-haired man's head, missing by mere millimeters as he moved, yet the resulting impact with the ground tossed our terrain into chaotic disarray, with some chunks being nearly as tall as the tree I had just jumped down from. I turned so that my eyes followed my newfound punching bag as he backed away from me, his expression mirroring the rage I felt at him and his hand already buried in his shuriken pouch. His sharingan gleamed with murderous intent, and my shoulder and neck burned, the pain joining that of my other injuries, unheeded and completely ignored in the wake of the adrenaline coursing through my body.

"What are **you **doing here, Sakura? Since when are weakling crybabies invited to train with the elite? Didn't we ignore you enough nine years ago?" Forgetting that I was injured, that I was wearing high heels and a mutilated skirt, that I should probably be seeing to Kakashi's inevitable injuries, I launched myself at the aggravating jounin before me, faking a blow to his chest only to belt him hard across the face as he misread my attack. As he went flying, he apparently wasn't winded enough not to counter me and as I rushed towards him I found mys arms peppered with shuriken and other assorted aerial weapons as instinct caused me to raise them over my face to block the projectiles.

He was back on his feet and giving as hard as he got with in a few seconds and while he was fully armed, I was not. Every hit he landed on me was another kunai induced laceration, while every hit I managed to land was producing broken bones and causing him to expectorate blood. While I hadn't resorted to such brutal tactics in years, he was forcing me to revert to my old style for now, to pulverize and disable him in the most painful way possible with the techniques my old mentor had taught me.

It was almost over when he managed to get behind me and I found myself roughly shoved up against one of the rock walls that protruded from the grass from my initial punch, my arms held behind my back with one hand as his other hand had me by the hair, my face crushed up against the bedrock. I shuddered in repulsion as he pressed up against my back, his teeth finding purchase enough in my neck that I felt a stream of blood trace down my neck and follow the line of my throat before sliding down my chest and soaking into the neck of my shirt before he licked the upper part of the streak away. Nauseated, I nearly puked as the flat of his tongue made it' way up to the wound and he kissed it roughly.

"You know, I bet you must be a real masochist in bed. You seem to enjoy me causing you pain. I bet you even like it when I bite." Swallowing my disgust I slammed my left foot down on his toes, remembering suddenly that I was wearing heels as I felt the sickening sensation of my sandal punching right through bone and the accompanying pained scream as he tore away from me, letting go of my hair and wrists and twisting my ankle when the heel didn't immediately free itself from the gushing puncture wound. I wasted no time with a swift elbow to the throat and using the momentum from the pivot, a knee straight to the chin as he keeled over in extreme pain. Jumping on the situation, literally, I flipped him onto his stomach, his arms twisted into a position where it would be impossible to move without breaking them, kneeling flat on his back to maximize my leverage.

"If anyone's the masochist here, I'd say it was you. You seem to enjoy me beating you to a bloody pulp." His voice came out choked as I punctuated my statement with driving a knee further between his shoulders as I pulled his arms to the breaking point.

"Not my fault you can't control your temper."

"My temper isn't the problem, the fact that I've found someone worth my time and that you can't handle it is."

"Kakashi? Give me a break, Sakura. You **belong** to me, and you know it." I jerked his arms up and heard the audible crack of the bones before he started cursing in pain.

"Careful what you wish for, you sick asshole. Whatever you think right now, prepare for one rude awakening. I brought you back because I thought you deserved a second chance and now realizing that you obviously didn't, the only person keeping me from killing you and mutilating your corpse is the one you tried so hard to hate the most." I leaned forward, lowering my voice as I said these last words and continued as he stiffened and the cursing grew more profuse and louder. He obviously didn't want to hear what came next.

"Itachi earned my respect in the short time I spent in his presence, while you never even tried to do as much. You're only alive now because he requested that whatever you do to me, I don't kill you out of an emotion as meaningless as hatred, and so out of respect for him I will never do so. Your brother repented of his misdeeds in his last breath and so even though you may be the last of your forsaken clan, your brother was and always will be the better man. As long as you know that, know this as well; I belonged more to Itachi than I do to you, and now I belong to Kakashi." The curses spewing from him in a relentless snarl only intensified and feeling the need to drive the point home, words passed my lips which caused him to fall silent in rage.

"Foolish boy, you lack understanding." The words that so mimicked his brother's repeated mantra obviously mocked him with a sentiment that was uniquely my own and feeling my own pain catching up with me as the adrenaline started to die down, I decided it was appropriate to end this to the tune of those words. Adjusting so that I held both wrists in one hand, I placed the other upon the exposed skin skin on the back of his neck, positioning my fingers so that all five digits were channeling chakra straight into his spinal column. This way, I performed the genjutsu that would cause him to fall into a dreamless sleep, and shortly felt him go completely limp, devoid of consciousness. Breathing heavily, I let go of him and rolled sideways onto the grass, vaguely catching sight of one of my legs before looking up at the sky and noting that the cut on my thigh was still bleeding, my leg pretty much just a sheen of red now. Oddly enough I felt little need to heal myself as the shapes the clouds made above me were far more interesting than my own injuries. _Look, a fox..._

"Sakura?" A dark shape blotted out my view of the sky and I pouted a bit at the loss of all the funny poofy clouds.

"Hey there." He knelt down beside me and once the sun was no longer directly behind his head I found it easier to see his face and smiled, rolling over onto my stomach to see him better.

"You should fix yourself up, you're in pretty bad shape." Instead I reached for his hand, my eyes attracted to the shiny red burn burn covering his forearm and started to heal him as I wondered how he had managed to get burnt so far up his arm without his shirt catching. Maybe that blue sweater was fireproof. _Wicked cool, I want one..._

"Sakura, stop. You need to worry about yourself, see?" He sat down as he pulled his arm away and I watched in mild interest as he pulled at the wire curled around my leg, yelping in pain as he extricated it and the wound started bleeding anew. The fresh wave of pain knocked the haze out of my head and I became alert to how bad my injuries actually were, kicking me into medic mode. Sitting up, I very gently pulled the other end of the wire out from my other leg, healing both wounds to the point where they could be considered superficial and stung just a bit before shifting my attention to the gash on the back of my head, where I had hit the tree earlier. _Speaking of which..._

"Hey. Thanks for earlier. I doubt I would've been able to move fast enough with my legs being tied like they were. Other than the burns, are you alright?" He nodded, watching me somberly through his one exposed eye as I shifted my attention to the dozens upon dozens of lacerations scoring my body, most of them on my torso and upper legs.

"Are you? I saw most of your fight and I have to say... Sasuke was more brutal than normal. That's saying something too." I stopped what I was doing momentarily, trying to block out the mental sensation of his tongue on my neck. The knowledge that Kakashi had probably witnessed it left a sour taste in my mouth as I returned to half-assedly healing myself.

"I'll live. Sadistic freak would just **love** to think he's getting to me." Moving down to my burned shin and twisted ankle, I left the rest for bandaging when I got home. No point wasting the chakra when I still had to heal Sasuke to the point where he wasn't coughing up blood intermittently and Kakashi was still covered in admittedly mild burns.

"He isn't, is he? It's not too late to stop this, you know." I moved close enough to the unconscious man next to me to assess his injuries and start to heal the worst of them, the minute punctures in his lungs and the broken ribs that had caused them.

"No, and he wont either. I'm fine, I swear." I felt something warm and slightly heavy descend upon my shoulders and my attention shifted away from my healing for a moment to see a slightly singed but otherwise just overly large, olive green flak vest and Kakashi standing behind me, hands in his pockets and vestless.

"Your shirt isn't covering much anymore, and you probably want to keep your butterfly covered." Turning pink, I looked around hurriedly for the familiar spiky blond mop that should have been loitering around too as I slipped my arms into the vest.

"Where's Naruto? If that loudmouth saw anything it'll be all over town as fast as he can run to Ichiraku's..." I resumed healing Sasuke until he was back in good condition, at least if you ignored the fact that he was unconscious, and now really tired from the combined blood and chakra loss I sat back, resting my forehead in my hands and my elbows on my knees.

"You know in all honesty, judging by the nosebleed he was sporting when he left, I think he was more focused on what he could see along your front half." Turning at least three shades redder I took a glance down at my chest to realize what I hadn't been thinking about when I was healing myself. My shirt was shredded and so were the wraps underneath, the pieces having fallen down to my waist where the shirt was tucked into my skirt, and my white shirt was damp with perspiration, sticking stubbornly to the skin underneath. No wonder I was cold.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I zipped up the vest to cover up, slightly irked that all three of my old teammates had seen me practically half naked without my even noticing. My hurry to cover up was met with a light chuckle from right behind my ear and my hair being ruffled. When my hair had fallen loose I had no clue, but for some reason it was and it was now all tangled too.

"Don't get mad, he's only male after all." I quickly turned and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a sit beside me and starting back at the healing job he had interrupted earlier. His burns were mostly minuscule, the very worst still only mild and I figured it was from the heatwave rather than the jutsu itself, as I had been covered with similarly mild burns where the backdraft had hit me. Finishing up, I stood with more than a little bit of difficulty and started to perform seals at a relatively quick pace. _Dog, dragon, pig, dragon, rooster, ox, dog, ram, rat. Earth-style reconstruction jutsu._ The grounds returned to their prebattle state, the trees that had fallen catching their roots in the dirt again and righting themselves as the raised clumps of earth fell back to being level and the grass met up seamlessly, as if nothing had happened here. Unable to take the dizziness from overextending myself again, I pitched forward onto the ground, barely able to hold myself up kneeling as I started to see brightly colored spots dancing over the painfully bright green grass I was staring at.

"You should really know better than to overextend yourself like that. Neat trick though." I almost laughed.

"I think medics are predisposed to have little sense of self preservation. At least unlike some, I stop before reaching the point where I pass out." When the ground stopped spinning underneath of me I stood, helped by Kakashi pulling me up.

"Hn. How far **are** you from passing out though?" I grinned.

"I'm pretty sure if I tried to summon an earth clone, that'd probably do it." I could summon earth clones instead of the shadow clones that Kakashi and Naruto used, because being summoned from practically nothing, shadow clones took up a massive amount of energy, way too much to be useful to me. Earth clones, on the other hand, actually came from the ground and took up next to no chakra, especially since earth was the primary alignment of my chakra to begin with. With water being my secondary nature, water clones actually weren't too hard either, and I used them when there wasn't any dry land to summon an earth style clone.

"Guess training's over for today then. Let's go get something to eat, I don't remember having lunch yet." Naruto's arrival stopped from teasing him about asking me out on a date, especially once I saw who he was dragging behind him at breakneck speed.

"What the hell did you drag Pig here for?" The blonds both looked at me, one in confusion, the other leaning more towards a glare as some less than ladylike comments spouted from her painted lips before she bent down to check on Sasuke.

"What happened? When I left..." Naruto was gesturing towards the trees and the ground in the general area of where it had been torn up, his confusion only growing more apparent as he actually took in his surroundings.

"I don't like leaving things a mess, Naruto. Pig, he's fine, don't waste your energy." Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and Ino scowled, turning to me after dispelling my genjutsu affecting Sasuke.

"How did you do this? It looks like you didn't just go berserk on the bastard." I kept one eye on Sasuke as Ino checked me over and Naruto still puzzled over the apparent lack of activity on the grounds that had looked like a war zone earlier. When Ino tried to finish healing the multitude of wounds that I counted as mere scratches, I pulled away from her.

"Save your energy, I'll live. Naruto, don't worry about how I did it, it's not important and I'm not teaching you how. Hey, let's go to Ichiraku's, I'm starving!" I pumped my fist in the air at the thought of food, because after this afternoon I was famished and Kakashi was right, we hadn't eaten anything for lunch. My suggestion was met by a multitude of different reactions. Passivity from Kakashi, a hazy grunt from Sasuke, who was still recovering from the artificial sleep, Ino stuck her tongue out at me in disgust and of course Naruto harbored more than enough excitement for all four of them.

"Hell yeah! Your treat, Sakura!" I snorted.

"No dice, **you** can treat **me**, Naruto." He crossed his arms in a characteristically immature gesture.

"Hell no, you haven't treated in forever!" Ignoring the other for the moment, I placed my hand on Naruto's shoulder and drew him aside, the sweetest smile I could manage plastered across my scratched and bruised face.

"You owe me, don't you think?" He shook his head obliviously at me.

"You suggested it, your treat." I pouted in mock disappointment.

"I promise I won't hurt you for ogling me if you buy this time." His normally tan complexion went whiter than white as he adopted a surprised yet very guilty look and my smile turned smug while I squeezed his shoulder gently.

"I didn't, I swear. At least not on purpose, I mean... Wait, why aren't you blackmailing the bastard instead? It's all his fault, you know." Letting go of him I ran my hand through my hair, shaking out the bits of bark stuck in it as I made the attempt to somewhat smooth it.

"Because Sasuke never got a nosebleed from seeing me, which by the way, you missed a spot cleaning up, and he was too busy worrying about me handing his ass to him to benefit from the free show. Besides, I don't think one more reason for me to beat on him would be nearly enough of a reason to buy me dinner." He backed away and turned from white to red at the mention of his nosebleed and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Ah, well once you put it that way, I guess..." I grinned and patted his shoulder.

"Glad we see eye to eye now. No worries though, other men have been conned into much worse for a relatively smaller price on my part. Let's go!" This last statement I shouted back at Ino and Sasuke, who were sitting talking on the grass, while Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Sasuke waved us off and Ino got up, running to catch up with us as we left the grounds.

"Hey Forehead! Can you tell me exactly why you're so adamantly rejecting Sasuke-kun's advances? You'd have to be insane to be passing **that** up!" I rolled my eyes even though she hadn't caught up enough to see me.

"Because he's an ass who's not worthy of my talent, intelligence and charm, of course." Naruto snorted with laughter and Ino just gawked at me when she caught up.

"Nor your generous sense of modesty, obviously. In all seriousness though, why?" The guy's obviously head over heels for you, and there are dozens of girls who'd kill to be in your position!" Oh no, not this 'But he looooves you!' crap. What the hell is he telling people to make them believe that, honestly?

"The guy's a sadist who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'love'. I don't know what bullshit he's fed you two to make you believe that he loves me, because he doesn't. The guy doesn't even **like** me, hell, he doesn't even **know** me that well anymore, if he ever knew me at all. He thinks I'm still some fawning, crybaby fangirl for crying out loud." That shut them both right up, even though I could see them communicating in the glances they cast across me, and they kept it up until we got to the ramen shop.

"The usual, Naruto-kun?"

"Of course!" Naruto took his seat right smack dab in the center of the counter and I shook my head at the juvenile gesture.

"Pork please, Ayame-san." I sat down next to Naruto, smiling politely at the quiet brunette behind the counter.

"Nothing for me, sorry Ayame." Ino didn't sit, instead just sidling up beside me and leaning on the counter as Ayame left to get our orders.

"Ino-pig, you busy tomorrow?" I cut her off before she could ask me anything I didn't want to answer, because I could tell she was just about to anyway, and attempted to arrange my skirt in such a way that it showed the least amount of skin possible, eventually just giving up on it covering anything lower than my panties, it was **that** ruined.

"Not really. Temari hasn't left yet, I think she'll be staying a while now, so I'll probably be enlisting her help at the shop so that we're not bored out of our minds tomorrow. Why?" Playing with the pockets on Kakashi's vest, I kicked my toes lightly against the counter.

"I have an empty closet and a bank account that contains the spoils of two or three years worth of A-Rank missions. Interested?" That definitely perked the blond up. Both blonds, in fact.

"Hell yeah, shopping spree! I knew there was a reason I liked you, Forehead." She threw her arms around my neck and I winced as she giggled heartily. Naruto kept his mouth shut, but I could tell he was just dying to ask me something.

"Bring Temari, if she's not busy. I'd like an objective eye that doesn't think exposed skin is a mainstay of any wardrobe to come along." Ino made a choked sound, probably in protest to my insinuation.

"Hey, that's not fair! My taste isn't bad, you just don't appreciate the beauty of my style!" Both me and Naruto snorted in laughter, Naruto's far more suppressed than mine however.

"Ino, the only people who see beauty in your style are men like Jiraiya and Genma. No, you show entirely too much skin for me, at least on a day to day basis." Case in point, she was wearing a sports bra and short shorts, both in a horrible shade of plum, underneath a minidress of purple fishnet. My attention turned to my meal as Ayame brought it around, muttering barely a word as she did so which led me to believe as I snapped apart my chopsticks that the normally talkative woman's attention was elsewhere.

"Itadakimasu!" Both Naruto and I dug into our ramen as Ino checked her watch.

"Meet me at the shop tomorrow morning, Forehead. I gotta go, Dad's expecting me home shortly. Oh... Sasuke... hey. Bye now, Billboard!" She dashed off and I suppressed a sigh as Sasuke slipped into the stool next to me and made his order. I didn't even bother to acknowledge him and Naruto started to poke me in the arm to get my attention.

"You just got to be a jounin, right? How'd you get A-rank missions already?" I slurped my noodles and stuck my tongue out.

"In non-aligned territory they don't care about your rank when you take a mission, and the missions aren't ranked either. I just never bothered unless the pay was worth at least an A rank here, and in fact I'm willing to bet the cheap asses posting the missions knew that some of the shit I did for them was at least worth an S rank price." The only response I got was the slurping of his noodles before he turned his attention over my head to Sasuke, who pointedly ignored him. Still eating and with a mouth full of noodles I was startled and nearly choked when I was gently tugged backwards by the collar of the vest I was wearing and kissed on the top of my head. Tilting my head back to look at him, I was met with the cute eye-crinkle which signified a smile and blushed, an image of his uncovered smile flooding my mind.

"Yo. You're in my spot, Sasuke." Sasuke growled in response and I rolled my eyes, hopping off of my stool as I finished my noodles.

"Have my spot, I don't think he's particularly amenable to being nice and mov- **eek!**" The bowl I had still had in my hand crashed to the ground and shattered as I was pulled backwards onto the lap of the very last person I wanted touching me, his arm wrapped firmly around my waist and fingers playing along my thigh through one of the more prominent rips in my skirt. I shuddered and a quick glance up at Kakashi revealed an unexpectedly angry glare affixed over my shoulder.

"Pretty brazen of you to grab a girl like that when she's spoken for, Sasuke-**kun**." I felt my cheeks turn pink even as I struggled against my captor's strong grip.

"Let go of me, Sasuke." He responded by pulling me flush against him and pressing his mouth against the back of my neck. I swallowed the nausea that the sensation produced and interestingly enough noticed that Kakashi's hand actually twitched towards his shuriken pouch as Sasuke whispered to me in a voice low enough that **I** could barely hear it, forget the other two.

"I'm going to tell you two things, Sakura. The first is that I never give up, but you already knew that, didn't you? The second is that you **are** mine and in the end, no matter how hard you fight it in the meantime, you will accept it or you'll die at my hands." He let go of me and I immediately hopped off his lap and was taken into Kakashi's arms, my reply dripping with contempt as it rolled off my tongue.

"I guess that's why they call it 'the end', ne? I'm going to tell you the same thing I told the last person who said you'd try to claim me as your own; Hell will freeze over and Heaven will blaze before I belong to **anyone** but myself and the man I **choose** to live for." I didn't think anything of it when I felt Kakashi's arm tighten around me momentarily. Right then I was truly thankful that he was holding me because as tired as I was, as drained as I was, I still felt that almost irrepressible sense that beating something to a pulp would make me feel better and strangely, being held seemed to be having a calming effect on that feeling. Without even thinking about it I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned my forehead against his collarbone, breathing in his distinct scent and smiling blissfully.

" 'ey, 'kashi! Sit down!" The hyper blond yelled at him with his mouth full and whatever spell I had fallen under a moment ago was broken. Stepping away from Kakashi, I let him sit down and ruffled the blond's hair as I noticed that he was already started in on his third bowl of ramen and that Ayame was now looking just short of depressed as she took Kakashi's order.

"Thanks for dinner, Naruto. Hey, come see me later if you want your vest back, okay?" Of course the last statement was aimed at Kakashi, and I distinctly felt three sets of eyes suddenly turn on us, all focused on the general area of our torsos as I leaned in and planted a kiss on his masked cheek. Either oblivious to the attention or simply apathetic towards it, he nodded and gave me a cute smile as I turned to leave and my heart gave a quick flutter at the gesture, my face flooding with heat as Inner Sakura did a little dance for my bravery in actually starting to play the part of the affectionate girlfriend. As I walked away I pondered how Naruto and Sasuke could possibly call themselves shinobi after not noticing Kakashi's lack of an important part of his wardrobe until I called attention to it. What a couple of idiots.

* * *

I picked up groceries on the way home, not in particular too keen on the idea of eating instant ramen for breakfast again now that I'd be spending the night in my own empty house again. Unfortunately now that I no longer had any company to distract me, bringing up the older Uchiha earlier now meant that he was plaguing the edges of my conscious thought, rather than remaining firmly within my unconscious, where he normally dwelt. Yes, I really did get nightmares quite frequently, and the only two members of the Uchiha clan that I had ever met were quite often the subject of them, often separately and in entirely different contexts from one another. One I had to relive his death over and over, like a scratched CD, while the other caused me fear rather than despair in my dreams. My thoughts lingered over the two as I drifted home and put away the groceries and left Kakashi's vest on my bed. The window was unlocked, he could just pick it up when he came by.

The train of thought I was stuck on as I got in the shower and scrubbed the caked blood off of my skin only led me to think on events even further back in my life and inwardly I wondered if all the decisions I had made had been the right ones. I didn't regret becoming a strong kunoichi, but did I really have to leave the village to do it? I had only accomplished half of what I had meant to and at the same time I had missed out on so much here, not the least of which being my friends' company. I did regret stopping Itachi from killing Sasuke, and maybe if I hadn't have interfered I wouldn't have had to kill someone I respected. As much as it sounds like it tested my loyalties to Konoha and perhaps even swayed them, I had never seen it that way. It was a bit of a gray area, somewhere to fall when there was no clear black or white. My tentative relationship with Itachi was one that stemmed a little from necessity and more than a little from morbid curiosity. My 19 year old mind, one that had seen the way shinobi existed outside the safety of a Hidden Village, it wondered if there wasn't a reason that the Uchiha clan had been destroyed. Sure, ANBU operatives were known to lose their minds from the things they saw and experienced, but Itachi had been hailed as a genius, a prodigy among his clan members and only a small percentage of those who joined the elite went nuts. If you had managed to make it there, after all, chances are you had seen everything anyway. So when I did finally meet the man branded as a stone-cold murderer, even the terror he instilled in me wasn't enough to send me running away from the curiosity he provoked. As I got out of the shower and got dressed in the nightshirt I had set aside, I admonished that dwelling on decisions made in the past wouldn't change anything anyway and shoved away everything in my mind that had to do with the two Uchiha to prevent me from opening up old wounds any farther than they already were.

On my way back to my room, I stopped short when I realized that my feet had taken me not to where I had intended but instead to my parents' bedroom door, and I swallowed back the emerging tears. I had gone to my mother for advice and help when she was alive, and it took next to nothing to imagine her laying on her stomach on the bed reading some trashy romance novel when I opened the door and stepped into the room.

When I had sealed up the house, I didn't have the courage to step inside this room then, and just put the seal on the door instead of the windows, like I had to every other room. Now that I did, it was immediately apparent to me that absolutely nothing had changed in six years, from the photos on the dresser to my mom's clothes hanging neatly in the closet. Well, maybe one thing. Her uniform. It was laying, neatly folded, on the red patterned comforter with her mask sitting directly on top of it all. She had always kept her uniform out of my sight, on the very top shelf of the closet, away from the edge where my little hands could pull it down. My curiosity overruling most everything else, I sat down on the bed and pulled the pile intact onto my lap, running my nails gently over the mask as I examined it. She had been a cat, the beautiful pattern on the mask rendered in red over the white highlighting the eyes and forehead, while the bottom half was left bare and just white. I had never once seen her in her uniform, and when I tried to imagine it on her, I found that I couldn't. She had been a woman that you'd never ever be able to imagine wearing anything as dismal as black, and if you hadn't have known she was a kunoichi, you'd never guess that either. Frowning, I got up and went to the closet to put the uniform away, up on the top shelf where it belonged. As I did, my fingers hit a large box and when I pulled it down for further inspection, my stomach flip-flopped in excitement as my heart panged in sadness.

It was my mother's wedding dress. I had always wanted to wear the beautiful western-style gown on my own wedding day, but as years passed I eventually gave up on the idea, as my heart seemed intent that I'd never **have** a wedding day. Feeling the urge to at least play out a part of my old fantasy now that I should be able to fit into the dress, I found myself gently lifting it out of the tissue lining of the box it had sat in for so many years and admiring it. I felt a sight pang of guilt as I stripped out of my nightshirt and donned the mass of white and pink layers, at least until I remembered that Mom had promised me I'd wear it one day. I made my way to the end of the bed, in front of my mother's vanity mirror, drawing in a short breath as I marveled at how well it fit. Of course, she had gotten married when she was sixteen, so that could be a large part of the reason that the dress fit me at all, being stuck in my own teenage body.

The dress was amazing, with long white lace gloves that stopped halfway between elbow and shoulder, and the low back that was barely there at all, only covering a couple of inches above the tail bone before flaring out elegantly into the floor length skirt. The front of the bodice was strapless and tight, leading me to wonder exactly how my father had allowed her to expose so much skin at their wedding. I twirled in front of the mirror, silently admitting that the dress suited my mother far better than it did me. My skin was too dark anymore, not the pale shade that I had once shared with her, and the pink accents blended too much with my hair, not to mention that the large black butterfly adorning my back looked positively garish and out of place next to all the white.

"I really must say, white and pink suit you almost as much as black and dark red." I jumped, spinning to face the bed and the familiar voice that belonged to the man situated on it. I felt my face heat and my jaw slacken slightly before I pulled myself together. How had I not felt him come in the house and walk **right** past me to sit on the bed directly behind me? Rather than bothering to ask the obvious, however, since of course the magician doesn't give up his secrets, I settled for something else to ask to keep my mouth from gaping so obviously.

"What are you doing here?" His eyebrow raised slightly and he plucked at his vest, on but still undone. Well geez, could I have asked anything more stupid? Of course that was what he was here for, it's not like he meant to catch me trying on my mother's wedding dress and scrutinizing how it would look on me as I walked down the aisle towards him...

"You won't even tell him you like him and you already have your dress picked out? You really **are** the weirdest kunoichi I've ever met, Sakura." Turning a shade of red which clashed horribly with both the dress and my hair (One of the reasons I stopped wearing it, I might add), I crossed my arms over my mostly exposed chest and tried not to look offended or fazed by his remark, although the likelihood of it actually working was close to nil. Oddly, I fellt the need to explain myself, and cleared my throat slightly.

"It was my mom's. I'll probably never live to get married anyway, so I figured there wasn't any harm in trying it on." My thoughts flickered back to Sasuke's threat earlier and how it would likely come to fruition. I found myself turning back to the mirror to keep my inner thoughts from the silver-haired man watching me, even if they did appear on my face, as I'd been told before that I was as easy to read as if I were a book.

"What makes you think you won't live to get married?" There wasn't much expression in his voice, at least not enough to give away his intent. I vaguely wondered why he even cared when he had just caught me in a particularly embarrassing situation. Not that he would ever use it to blackmail me, I think. I forced a smile into my voice to answer him.

"Being a shinobi's a dangerous job, a field medic even more so. Smart enemies will always try to dispose of healers first, to avoid a battle of attrition." Why would I bother to explain that to him? Of course he already knew, he wasn't some wet behind the ears genin or chuunin, he was Kakashi. _Am I always this much of an idiot when I'm tired?_

"You're more accomplished than most, you've survived this long after all. Who's to say you won't live as long as Tsunade?" I placed my palms flat on the vanity top, where my mother's old hair brush still lay, a few long brunette strands caught in the sable bristles. _Sasuke says so, that's who._ Of course, I wasn't about to say that out loud. Intervention wasn't something I wanted of needed on this matter, and it was exactly what I knew he'd insist on. He may have let me have my way with the seal, but if he genuinely thought my-**no**, either of our lives, mine **or** Sasuke's, were in danger, he'd go straight to Tsunade about it, no ifs, ands or buts about it. He wouldn't want one student dead and the other facing arrest, if not both dead, and I was probably one of the few who knew enough about him to understand why. I'd deal with this myself though.

"I'm not nearly on par with Tsunade, that's for sure. Although even if I did get married, a white dress would be a mockery of tradition, ne?" I turned the topic to a lighter one to divert my attention from my inevitable end at the hands of an obsessive psychopath. Kakashi was apparently very confused, from his expression in the mirror, so I elaborated.

"A white wedding dress is supposed to be an indicator of a pure bride, Kakashi." I caught a glance of him in the mirror again as he quirked an eyebrow at me.

"I thought you said you still had your innocence, Sakura." I gently dragged my teeth across my bottom lip and smirked.

"I do, but the likelihood of finding a guy worth spending the rest of my life with and dealing with the frustration throughout the entire courtship and engagement? You've got to be kidding me, I'm selective, not a saint." I turned and climbed up onto the edge of the bed, my body facing him but my head turned to see the mirror as I played with my hair, first twisting the damp mass into a tight bun, then separating it into sections to plait it.

"What if **he** wanted to wait until marriage?" I snorted before turning my head just long enough to shoot him a 'oh come **on**' look before turning my attention back to my hair. His tone was completely serious though, and his expression matched perfectly. The idea of a guy, any guy, forget one who read Icha Icha with such devotion actually advocating chastity until marriage was mind boggling at best, but that seemed to be exactly what he was doing. Unbelievable.

"What guy would willingly endure that kind of punishment? Surely **you**, Jiraiya's number one fan, agree that that's exactly what it is? I'd straight out call you a liar if you told me you were a virgin." At my last comment, I noticed his almost imperceptible twitch and smirked slightly. It was as bad as an admission of guilt, and I dragged my teeth across my lip again.

"I never said I was, and I do agree with you on at least some level. That being said, **could** he be worth it to wait?" I almost laughed, but the seriousness of his words made me suppress it. Instead I just smiled as I shook out my hair and started to try something a little more elaborate with it, something I had learned in Suna a while back.

"Well, I've waited this long, so why not? The only way I'll lose it in any case is if, by some miracle of nature I get noticed by somebody I **want** noticing me, because I sure as hell am not using my body like that on a mission nor am I getting laid simply for that sake of not dying a virgin. And... if that miracle **did** happen and he **did** want to wait... well, Icha Icha's worked just fine so far, it'd just have to do for a while longer, that's all." I was paying very little attention to the man in the mirror with how intently I was trying to remember exactly how the knots in my hair were supposed to fall, so I missed whatever his reaction was to my admissions, although I did vaguely feel the mattress shift, and had to adjust my stance to keep my balance.

"So, who's your groom then?" Aha, another attempt at getting me to give myself up. I smirked, continuing to twist and twirl my hair until the elaborate pattern started to show properly.

"If you want to know, take a guess. You **should** have figured it out by now, I gave you enough hints." Another shift in the mattress and once again I had to adjust to keep from falling. Failing at the style I was trying, I shook my hair out again and split it into two sections, trying out the twin buns look that Tenten pulled off so well. No dice, I looked like I was wearing one of those headbands with the animal ears on them. Pink teddy bear ears. Sighing, I let down the buns and tried to figure out how best to put my hair back up, briefly contemplating whether or not it would look better short again, despite the fact that I actually liked it long.

"Well, since he's not here anyway... Can I kiss the bride instead?"

_...What?_

Not entirely sure that I had heard him right, that would have been the question I asked as I gave up on my hair and snapped around to face him, if my mouth hadn't been very quickly covered with his own masked one. I couldn't help it, I panicked. A memory of my first kiss flashed to the front of my mind and before I could stop myself I tried to step back away from him, my cheeks as red as they could possibly be. Apparently I forgot that I was kneeling on the end of a bed in a full length dress not more than a couple of feet from a very large and solid piece of wooden furniture, because my foot got caught in said dress and in a very un-ninjalike display of klutziness I pitched backwards, my head very soundly connecting with the vanity before I hit the floor, curled up with my arms cushioning my head and my feet still tangled in my dress, one ankle hurting badly.

While the spots cleared from my vision I was treated to the sight of a very amused copy-nin stepping off of the bed and kneeling down near me, sporting his trademark happy eye crease. I touched the back of my head where I had hit it and my fingers met with the familiar warm, gooey sensation of torn flesh and gushing blood. Ah well, head wounds always bled disproportionately to their size and severity. I'd live.

"Not planning on panicking every time I do that, are you? People are going to get suspiscious really fast, you know." I groaned, sitting up with my back against the vanity, fighting the urge to openly glare as I extricated my feet from the dress, noting the swelling in one ankle with no happiness. I didn't have enough chakra to heal a sprain tonight.

"I wasn't planning on it **this** time, it was a reflex. You seem to forget that my first and only kisses resulted in me getting a curse seal branded to my neck." I didn't say it with any real malice, but it nonetheless wiped the smile off of his face, to be replaced with a concerned frown. Ignoring it, I got up with the help of the vanity and started to pull off my dress. I didn't want to ruin it like I had the green one, and I could already feel the threads of blood making their way down my back. I folded it up and put it back in the box carefully, putting the gloves on the vanity instead of back with the dress. I put the box back away and grabbing my nightshirt I started out of the room and towards the bathroom. It wasn't exactly easy with one bad ankle, but I made it and washed up. A hiss of pain escaped me as I tried to coax out enough chakra to at least stop the bleeding, and once that was done I couldn't bother with anything else. At least I didn't have a concussion, because then I'd be in big trouble.

"...Sorry." I cast a glance at the door that I hadn't bothered to close from my vantage point perched on the bathroom counter, my back to the mirror to ensure I had cleaned up adequately, and quirked an eyebrow at the man politely **not** looking at me. Slipping on my nightshirt, I hopped down and grabbed a towel for my hair.

"Stay here tonight?" The choked sound from the direction of the door told me **that** wasn't what he had been expecting me to say. Pity my head was hidden in my towel while I dried my hair, his expression would have been priceless.

"What?" I finished and hung my towel back up, noting passively the small pink stain near the edge of it. A short glance at him before grabbing my hairbrush indicated that he was looking for some sort of explanation, and I attacked my tangles while I granted him such.

"I owe you breakfast." As if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was. Sort of. I had other reasons, but no reason to share them.

"Ah, I see. Guess that's a good enough reason." I smiled, finishing up with my hair and plaiting it to get ready for bed. A smile crossed his face too, I could see it clearly in the mirror.

"Good. I'll go change the sheets on the guest bed. Too bad mine isn't a double, or you could just sleep there." Another choked cough and this time I giggled. Teasing him wasn't so hard. Gently pushing him out of the way, I detoured to the linen closet to grab a clean set of sheets before heading to the room at the very end of the hall.

Our guest room was the second biggest bedroom, right after my parents', and silently I wondered why I had not only been stuck with a single bed when both of the other two rooms had queens, but also stuck with the smallest room itself to boot. I was so stealing the master once I could get it cleaned out. This one had been pretty musty before I sealed up the house, but I had aired it out that day and so it was pretty nice in here now. Still, I opened the window a crack and made the bed, inwardly cringing at the flowered bedspread. What possessed my mother to only buy floral patterned bedclothes I have no idea, honestly. Only once I was done did I notice that he hadn't followed me into the room. Curious, I headed back down the hallway and once I got to the other end, noticed him in my room, on my bed... reading Icha Icha Reverse volume 1.

"Hey, I told you that was off limits!" As fast as I could limp over to him the book was gone from his hands and he was looking up at me weirdly.

"You do know that the likelihood of that **actually** happening is less than zero, right?" My heart skipped a beat before I checked how far he had gotten and sighed in relief. He hadn't even scratched the second chapter, which meant that I had barely made an appearance and he hadn't at all, it was all Naruto and Sasuke. I almost laughed.

"A girl can fantasize, can't she? Two hot guys soaked wet with their tongues shoved down one another's throat? Priceless." That got a chuckle out of him, although he still looked slightly disturbed.

"You know, by drawing this Jiraiya gave you blackmail material for the rest of his life. He must really trust you." I grinned, putting the book away on the highest shelf in my room.

"It's not quite that simple. See, if I showed that to either of the boys, I'd just be inviting their retribution on myself, because Naruto for one **knows** that Jiraiya's work is almost strictly heterosexual, and that would invite the question of **why** he put guy on guy action in my novel. The obvious conclusion is that it was requested, and even though that isn't the case, they wouldn't be waiting for an explanation. Nope, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut, thanks." He quirked an eyebrow at me and I motioned for him to get off of my bed. Once he did so, I started to straighten out the comforter where he had rumpled it.

"I bet you could take the both of them on, if you felt like it." I beamed at the vote of confidence even as I guided him out of my room and shut the door behind me. I didn't want curiosity to get the better of him and for him to decide that he wanted to delve deeper into my books.

"I'd love to try, just not when they're teaming up to try and kill me. Although, it would be mostly Sasuke anyway. Naruto's a lightweight when faced with genjutsu, as I've already proved. I'd have him down in ten seconds flat, and that's a worst case scenario." I hummed as I went and rummaged through the closet for a few clean towels and went to restock the bathroom shelf, adding as I thought about it."You can have a shower if you'd like." He smirked at me as I tried not to let my mind wander to thoughts of him nude and wet. It wasn't working, and my face probably made my thoughts plain as day.

"Not going to exact your revenge on me, are you?" He was teasing me and I smirked, arms crossed across my chest. _Well, the lock on the bathroom door __**is**__ exceedingly easy to pick..._

"Hell no, if I wanted to peek at naked guys I'd go visit the baths." I stuck my tongue out at him even as he raised an eyebrow at me and entered the bathroom.

"I wonder which of you actually picked up more bad habits from Jiraiya, you or Naruto. You're both pervs." I snorted as the door shut, and turned to go back to my room. How much of a perv could Naruto possibly be? He had a wife and kid after all, and even I wasn't that bad, having little interest in any guy that didn't sport a scarred sharingan and a mask along with silvery white hair. As I flopped out on my bed, second volume of Reverse in hand waiting to be cracked, a severely delayed reaction kicked in.

Kakashi had actually kissed me. A short, chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. And he basically said he planned on doing it again. Inner Sakura was screaming and dancing in excitement while outwardly I settled for hiding my tomato-red face in my pillow and fighting off the butterflies threatening me again. There was no way I was going to be able to read tonight, with him sleeping only two dors down. I'd probably end up sleepwalking and crawling into bed with him. Or worse.

Nope, no Icha Icha, my imagination and self-control were under enough strain as it was.


	17. 16

**GR's Note: **_Thank you so much, everyone who's enjoying this story so far! I appreciate every review, comment, favorite and subscription to this fic, you guys really know how to make a girl feel special! In all seriousness, I'll get to the biggest point of this author's note. There is a very mild ItaSaku vibe to this fic, but I __assure__ you, it takes a __major__ backseat to the KakaSaku. The next few chapters will address Sakura's relationship with Itachi as it pertains to the way she is now, and so that's why I feel it's important to add it. This and the next chapters will have a more dark feel to them, and this is purely intentional. Just letting you know now. Anyway, enjoy!_

-16-

I had learned a lot today, that was for sure. The first thing was that Sakura had some very weird triggers when it came to her temper, Sasuke being the most prominent of them, it seemed. She just couldn't keep her disdain from showing and it took next to no effort on his part to pick a fight. On the other hand, not much else seemed to provoke her at all, my seeing her naked aside. She even seemed to have gained a tolerance for Naruto and his idiotic streak, taking everything he said pretty evenly. I couldn't quite decide if it was a good thing that we weren't being beaten up when we expected to be, or if this just meant that eventually the pot was going to boil over on us. I didn't even want to fathom the havoc she'd wreak if it was the latter, with all the strength she'd gained while away.

The second was that Jiraiya had way more influence on her than was possibly healthy for the general male population. She had little to no shyness when it came to her body, possibly stemming from her outlook that she wasn't much to look at, which obviously wasn't true. She read Icha Icha for no other reason than she enjoyed it, and she wasn't above borrowing said dirty novel from **my** weapon pouch. Sure, I didn't stop her, but just the fact that she would and did so was evidence enough. Add to that the insinuation that she had no qualms regarding peeking in on the public baths and well.... she was definitely shaping up to be a bit of a perv. A really good one too. She managed to sneak in while I was in the shower and leave a clean pair of pajamas on the counter for me without me even noticing.

Which brings me to the third thing. She was beyond exceptional as a kunoichi, even better than I had initially realized way back in Hana. Earlier today was beyond baffling. How she had noticed me cheating was a mystery in and of itself, because I never moved my headband, it was already up just enough, like always. I just opened my sharingan and looked at her, and I don't even know where she got the senbon from, considering that I had watched her dress and she hadn't had them then, I was sure. In the space of less than a second she had gotten behind me and hit me cleanly. Her accuracy and knowledge of the human nervous system had to be perfect to make that shot, and she had done it flawlessly. Medics weren't routinely taught stuff like that, it was often too difficult to even be worth the trouble, and with her being able to do it she was one of probably three who could in all of Konoha, the other two being senbon specialists. Her pain tolerance was almost inhuman, she could fight as well in heels as in boots and she had an undeniable sadistic streak, all things proven today during training. She was a prime candidate for ANBU and could probably land a position in any devision she wanted, on any team she wanted. She'd be a squad leader in a matter of weeks for sure, if she didn't take a leaf out of Ibiki and Anko's books and put her name in to be an interrogator, which she'd no doubt be good at too. She'd even have the added perk of not having to commission a separate medic to keep her victims conscious, sh could do it herself.

Another thing, slightly surprising even though it shouldn't really be, was that somewhere underneath the person she had become in the last six years was the same little girl that worried about her looks, had dreamed of getting married and having kids someday. Mind you, that girl was buried down deep underneath the independent woman she was now, but I had caught a glimpse of her in that mirror, wearing her mother's wedding dress and looking like a fairytale princess with a dreamy, hopeful smile on her face. She had disappeared as soon as I made my presence known, and once she was gone, Sakura's smile no longer extended all the way to her eyes, making me realize exactly what had seemed so off about her smile since her return. No matter how brightly she siled, her eyes stayed dark, guarded and alert. Her smiles were by no means fake, but but it was a testament to the fact that she wasn't so innocent anymore. She had experienced the reality of shinobi life, that there was no black and white in this world, especially not when you were mostly on your own. She had probably done things to survive that weighed heavily on her conscience now, and she was having trouble forgetting. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it had to do with Sasuke either, considering the way she acted towards him and had even before he started acting with hostility towards her. While there was nothing that could erase life experience, seeing the Inner Sakura made me wonder if she'd ever trust me enough to open up and willingly show herself to me.

At this point, I didn't care who she was in love with, if he wasn't noticing her, I was, and eventually I could get her to see that. This little game we were playing at could become the perfect opportunity to warm her feelings and possibly get her to accept my affections. I was patient though, and there was no need to rush things. She slipped into her role surprisingly comfortably for someone in love, but that might just be an indicator of excellent acting skills. She was a ninja, after all, and should have no problem slipping in and out of any role she was forced to take.

Not that I had left her much choice this morning, maneuvering around the circumstances that had been so generously dropped in my lap, but what little guilt I had felt at manipulating the situation was very quickly assuaged by the astounding number of opportunities I had been afforded today alone. The fantastic view of her in the buff, for one, was more than worth the injuries I had sustained at her hands, and I had even been lucky enough that she had forgiven me and fixed all the damage. Watching her fluid movements while sparring, the irresistible sensation of her satiny skin under my hands while pulling her out of Sasuke's line of fire, the arousal I had been forced to suppress with her clinging tightly to me and her body firmly ensconced between my own and the tree, her legs wrapped tightly around me for an instant before she opened her eyes, the softness of her lips through the mask on my cheek and mouth, the minty lip balm smudged slightly across the thin fabric of my mask, it was all worth it even if she got cold feet and called off the entire thing. Her reaction when I had kissed her was slightly troubling, but she wouldn't always respond that way. It was just a matter of her getting used to the affectionate gesture without any trauma being associated with it. She had blushed like a preteen with a crush when we had started to attract attention outside the hospital and I had nuzzled into her neck, but she hadn't been adverse to the gesture, she had reciprocated in kind, showing that so far it was just kisses she had to come to terms with. The question of how she might react to a more intimate touch nagged slightly at my mind as I entertained some inspired fantasies about her, but I left it unanswered. I wouldn't even try anything like that yet, because you didn't guard your virginity like a precious treasure until you were 21 for no reason, especially when you could easily have your pick of who you wanted to take that treasure, like she did.

One thing Jiraiya had always made a point to mention to Naruto and I and eventually Sasuke while in the village reporting Sakura's progress to Tsunade was Sakura's developing ability to attract attention. Male attention, specifically. I had always pegged the insinuation as an attempt to rile the boys up with the possibility that she might find someone new in another village and flat out never return to Konoha, but once she had gotten back and shown herself I realized that there was likely a lot of truth in the old sage's words. More than anything he might've been warning us of all the attention she was going to receive right her in the village, which I had no doubt was going to be a lot, and maybe telling us to keep a protective watch over her. Then again, he might just have been trying to rile up the boys due to their protective and in Sasuke's case, possessive natures. Who knows what goes on in that head when he's not writing. Regardless of his intent however, I was going to keep my eye on her, going to play the part of the good boyfriend, at least until I could stop playing the game and she'd be mine for real. In the meantime, any guy who so much as looked at her without pure intent would be filling up a hospital bed in record time.

In any case, enough inner monologuing for now. She had been agitated and edgy all night, her depleted and weak chakra reserves fluctuating drastically for hours before she had gotten up out of bed. Right now she had finally gone to the kitchen and was staying there, but for almost an hour she had paced the house quietly, even stopping in front of the door leading to this room once or twice, each time apparently deciding that whatever was bothering her wasn't doing so enough to wake me. It wouldn't have mattered if she had come in, I hadn't been sleeping to begin with. Even without sleeping next to her I was acutely aware and wide awake every time her chakra flared and ebbed. I had grown used to it, even though it never happened while I was right next to her, as it signaled that she was having nightmares again.

Deciding that I wouldn't be getting any sleep anyway, I got up and silently made my way to the kitchen, where her weak chakra signal currently resided. There I found her, sitting on the counter with a steaming cup of tea clasped between her hands. Mint, it smelled like, with lemon and honey. I couldn't offhand remember the therapeutic properties of mint, but I imagine that whatever they were, they weren't working too well. She looked troubled, to say the very least, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her brow furrowed in thought as she stared at nothing.

"You're up late. Couldn't sleep?" She didn't even turn towards me as she spoke, instead just taking a sip of her tea and sitting back, her head and shoulders resting back against the cupboards. Most of the house followed a relatively similar color scheme of creams and browns, the kitchen being no exception, and Sakura stuck out like a rose in the desert with her pink hair, jade eyes and neon orange panties plainly visible under her short, white button-down nightshirt, even in this low light.

"Something like that. What about you, Sakura? Nightmares?" She sighed, rolling her head slightly to the side to face me as I went and sat on the counter across from her. These pajamas had no pockets, so I just crossed my arms in front of my chest instead as I watched her.

"...Yeah. They were just worse than normal, that's all." She took another sip of her tea, and it was evident from her clouded gaze, barely discernible trembling and still fluctuating chakra that whatever her nightmares were, they were becoming a source of real distress for her. At least after she she had awakened she put some effort into healing herself again, which could be another reason she seemed so weak at the moment. It looked like her ankle was all better, and the wounds from her face were almost gone, but her arms and legs appeared to have been left in the same state she had left them after training yesterday, cuts prominent and unstitched or bandaged.

"What's bothering you? Maybe it will help if you talk, because I know you can remember them, despite what you told me before." She regarded me with highly guarded scrutiny before her expression turned more placid and she nodded slightly. She finished her tea and hopped down from the counter, crossing the room to the stove and warming the kettle again.

"Have you ever done something you regret so badly that you wish you could go back and change things, to see if maybe you made the wrong decision the first time around?" She wasn't facing me, so I didn't nod, but reflecting back, of course my answer would be yes. Obito and Rin, ignoring Sakura from the very first time she made her impression on me, passing on my own technique to someone who'd later betray the village and use it against his best friends, passing over Sakura's potential yet again when she grew up and had a second chance for her first impression, standing by and just letting her leave the village... That was all just the tip of the iceberg. Funny how half the things that immediately jumped to mind involved ignoring the woman who was now my equal and quite likely my better.

"I think everyone has, Sakura, civilian and shinobi alike. It's just a matter of perspective. We see the bad in our decisions even when nobody else does because **we** made them. There is no harsher critic for your actions than yourself, Sakura." She nodded slowly, pouring the now boiling water into her cup on top of the wedge of lemon and mint leaves she had placed in it previously. Careful not to spill, she came back over to sit on the counter again.

"So how do you know if you made the right decision or not?" She looked down at the floor, eyes narrowed in despair.

"What is it that you're regretting so badly? The past can't be changed, we can only try to learn from our mistakes and make the future better." Her face softened as she contemplated what I had said.

"I saved someone who's life I should have let end and I ended the life of someone I could have saved. You hear it said that things aren't all black and white, but why not? Why can't they be?" Her face was opening up as she talked, she was letting go of her self-imposed barriers, if only for a moment. I had an inkling of who she should have killed, but no clue who she felt she could have saved.

"I take it this is about Sasuke?" She nodded.

"Both Uchiha brothers, actually. I shouldn't have interfered, I should have let things play out the way they were supposed to." I frowned, slightly confused. She felt that Itachi deserved to live? No, I wasn't hearing her right.

"Things **are** the way they're supposed to be, simply because it's the only way they **can** be." She leaned forward, head in her hands.

"I can't seem to help wondering if things would be different though, if I had let Itachi have his way, if I hadn't insisted that he let Sasuke live." The emotions on her face when she mentioned the older Uchiha spoke volumes, and I didn't like what it was saying.

"What was your relationship with Itachi, Sakura?" She raised her head and her eyes found my face. I tried to regain the passivity I normally held up, but lately I found it difficult around her, now being no exception. She smiled. A tiny, soft smile, one that once again didn't reach her darkened jade eyes.

"Where do you want me to start?" I raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. Apparently she hadn't come across the brothers fighting and helped Sasuke by chance, as we had all been led to believe. She continued, her question being a rhetorical one. "I came across him by chance, badly wounded, poisoned and almost dead. He was covered in two distinctly different strains of blood, one being his own and the other being another Uchiha. Thinking it might have been Sasuke's, I healed him back from the brink to question him, to see if Sasuke was alive or dead. When he came to, he unsuccessfully tried to pull me into the Tsukiyomi and afterwards volunteered that the blood wasn't Sasuke's, it belonged to another and that the doner was dead."

Well, that was a big surprise. My eyes narrowed. Were these secrets she should be withholding from Tsunade? It was known by a select few that Itachi had a partner to instigate the massacre, what if it had been that third Uchiha? More importantly, what if he wasn't really dead? Lastly, how had she avoided being pulled in by the mangekyou when even Sasuke and I with our own sharingan hadn't been able to?

"He helped me find Sasuke, but he wasn't the boy I knew anymore. Actually in truth, I probably never really knew him and he had been that way all along. In the end, anyway, he couldn't hold a candle to his brother. I'm not positive exactly why he stayed his sword when I stepped between the two, when he could have killed us both, but he did. Ordered me not to interfere, but I never was very good at listening, was I? I ended up fighting to protect the both of us, and ended up killing Itachi to protect Sasuke." This was definitely information that should be shared with Tsunade, although with her penchant for guarding her secrets anymore, I doubt she'd want me to tell. It was probably a miracle that she was even telling me, so it probably wouldn't be wise to betray her trust.

"You still haven't answered the question." She nodded, her smile even more subdued as she did so.

"I respected him. He wasn't a cold-blooded murderer, like the horror stories we had been told had led us to believe, he wasn't a monster, he was just human. Just like you and I." I couldn't help but frown at the incredibly revealing words. There was more to their relationship than what she let on, but what?

"He slaughtered his entire clan and waited around to torment his younger brother, Sakura. How can you call that humanity?" Finally remembering her tea, she drank it up and rested her chin on one hand, elbow on her knee. She looked thoughtful, wistful even.

"He did what he had to do, what he had been ordered to do. He knew from the beginning what it meant. But he failed, in the end. He loved his brother too much to kill him outright, and regretted what he had done. He stayed behind while his partner fled, simply to make sure that Sasuke would find him one day and absolve him of his sins, because he thought nobody else could." I regarded the woman in front of me with interest.

"Ordered?" She nodded.

"The Uchiha clan was planning an uprising to take over the running of Konoha, Itachi's mangekyou was in fact a product of their scheming, they were planning on using him as a weapon. The Third was using Itachi as a spy of sorts though, because he had no love for war and didn't wish to see on start over something as silly as the politics of a Hidden Village. Once the hokage and the elders knew what was being planned, they gave Itachi the task of interfering." With every word she spoke the pain evident in her eyes grew more intense. I wanted to believe her, but I had met the stoic man myself. I had no doubt that he was capable of the murder of his whole family, woman and children, shinobi and civilian alike, purely in cold blood. He had been a prodigy, an elite at a very young age. He had been calculating and efficient at dispensing death. That, and her story was just too unbelievable. She couldn't be talking about the same man, not with such unguarded, almost reverent openness.

"He told you all this?" She nodded.

"In the same breaths as his last requests and warnings. He wasn't lying to me, Kakshi, if that's what you think. I'm sure you can probably tell that I'm not lying either." That was true enough. My sharingan was uncovered and open, and I wasn't catching any of the minutiae that would indicate deceit. She was being as honest as she could possibly be, and strangely I felt honored that she was sharing all of this with me. It must have been bogging down on her mind and conscience to keep it all locked in.

"This is why you have nightmares?" No wonder. Anyone would have them after being through what she had. She smiled and I thought I heard the soft beginnings of a chuckle.

"Mostly. There are other reasons, but the majority of them revolve around this." She got up once again to start the kettle, presumably for more tea. She turned and her eye flitted somewhere over my shoulder, before she turned on the oven. I looked in the direction she had as she started pulling out ingredients and a mixing bowl. She had probably been looking at the clock, which read six twenty-four am. She was starting breakfast, I guess, although what she might be making with flour, eggs and grated carrots and apples was completely lost on me.

I watched in interest as she mixed all her ingredients into the bowl to make a batter of some sort, pouring it out in dollops into a sectioned baking pan with circular portions. Muffins? She was making muffins for breakfast? I smirked, wondering with more than slight amusement if she was showing off or if she was just really sick of instant ramen, as I seem to recall that being the only thing in her cupboards not all that long ago. My thoughts stopped when she started to pour boiling water from the kettle into her cup and her hand slipped. She didn't make a peep as the boiling water cascaded over her arm, leaving the skin blistered and bright red as she put the kettle down to clean up the mess. The little incident reminded me of something I had been meaning to ask her since her birthday.

"How did you train to have such high pain tolerance? You didn't do anything... drastic, did you?" She stiffened and finished making her tea, tossing the muffins in the oven and setting the timer before turning and regarding me with a guarded look once again. I inwardly cringed at asking something that caused her walls to go back up so quickly. It was like one step forward, two steps back.

"You're pretty curious this morning." She watched me carefully, her eyes never leaving her face as she gently ran her fingers over the burn, the bluish-green glow an indicator that she was healing it.

"You're a mystery to me anymore. You've achieved a level of strength in a few short years that many won't in their entire life, and have grown and matured immeasurably. Besides, I already know your favorite food and color, so I have to ask **something**." She smiled slightly, taking her hand away from her arm to reveal it looking as immaculately scarred as ever, yet no longer red in the slightest.

"...Mist nin can be highly creative in their sadism when they've found a prisoner they like." She said it calmly, almost coldly and I winced. I never thought she would've seen the inside of an interrogation room, and Mist nin were the very worst for it.

"How did you get to be a prisoner in a Mist encampment?" She smiled dryly.

"I wasn't careful where I wore my headband. They tracked me into their own territory and ambushed me, six to one. They took me to the village rather than an encampment though, where they used me for... training." Her teeth momentarily bared in an angry grimace as she forced out the last word, and I went cold. Ibiki routinely picked up stray nin from enemy nations wandering around Fire Country and used them to similar purpose, training ANBU interrogators in the various methods of torture. I had overseen such training, and knowing that she had to go through that or even worse was sickening. Small wonder she hadn't been irreparably damaged, both physically and mentally. Although...

"Is that where you got all your scars?" She shook her head.

"I told you yesterday that Jiraiya was the source for most of my scars. No, they were using me for training specifically in one sort of torture. They entered the brain to directly simulate pain without injury, kind of like the seal on my neck. At one point, the pair training on me were good enough at it to cause pain in any area of the body." That was definitely information Tsunade should know. I had never heard of or seen a jutsu like what she described, and our own interrogation squads could likely make use of the knowledge.

"How did you escape?" Mist's prisons were among the most heavily fortified in the world. She visibly hesitated.

"I don't know if anyone here heard... about the attack that razed Mist to the ground? The one led by... Akatsuki?" She shifted uncomfortably. This just kept getting better and better, that was for sure.

"...I heard of it." We both flinched slightly at my unintentionally curt tone and she shifted her eyes away from me, her arms clasped protectively over her chest. I wanted to go over there and hold her, to tell her that she didn't need to tell me anything she didn't want to, but somehow I didn't. I stayed put.

"The blond one, the one that was in Suna. He blew open my cell door while I was still unable to move from an earlier session. He left me there, cell wide open, when he realized I wasn't who they were looking for. He recognized me though, he knew who I was." She let out a soft sigh before continuing. "When I had recovered enough to move, my way out of the village was pretty clear, the villagers who had managed to survive had enough of their own problems to deal with without worrying about the handful or less of prisoners that managed to escape in the aftermath. I ended up in their bingo book afterwards though, followed shortly by their allied nations like Stone and Grass. It kind of sucked being on the wanted list half the world over for being an escapee, and I adopted the persona of Mayu on Jiraiya's advice. He showed me sketches of a character he was writing and I became her. Thankfully he cut her role down a lot to protect me. I ended up in the bingo books again as Mayu though too, eventually, but I don't want to talk about that." She was now playing with her braid as she stared not at me, but past me. She really hadn't had it easy, had she?

"That attack was years ago, why didn't any of us hear about this?" _Okay, now you couldn't look more guilty if you tried._

"I forbid Jiraiya from saying anything once he found me. It was the reason his first report was late by six months though. It's kind of hard to find your charge when she's sitting in an enemy prison, after all." I set my jaw after asking my next question, anticipating an answer I knew I wouldn't like.

"How long after you left were you caught and how long were you there? Did they happen to get anything vital out of you while torturing you?" Her eyes flickered to the oven and then straight back to mine, her expression placid and calm, and she was longer fidgeting.

"Two weeks, six and a half months and no. Nothing that wasn't common knowledge or that they hadn't already gotten out of other leaf nin there for questioning. They weren't in particular looking for information from me though. Anyway, what's with the twenty questions? It happened, so what? Forget about it and let me go back to doing the same. It's served me well so far." That was the end of that conversation, I could tell. No subtle hint that she no longer wanted to talk about it, instead she went right for the direct route. I had pushed past her subtleties so often when talking to her, maybe she just thought I never got the hint, and so now went straight to blatantly telling me that the topic of discussion was closed.

"Sakura?" She had washed the mixing bowl and was now mixing a new set of ingredients in it while a skillet warmed on the stove.

"Hn?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, smudging batter on her cheek. I suppressed a grin at how endearingly cute it looked, mostly because of more pressing matters at hand.

"Did you happen to pick up the jutsu that was used on you?" She kept her eye on her work and didn't turn to me, but the visible stiffening of her shoulders answered me long before her verbal response did.

"... If I did, would it matter? You know better than anyone that I was nothing if not acutely observant, Kakashi." She poured some of the batter into two puddles on the skillet, using a spoon to spread them thin. While they cooked she got down two plates from the cupboard and some utensils from the drawer, setting the table with them.

"You should pass on the information to Ibiki or Anko. Our interrogation units could probably put it to good use." She flipped the pancakes expertly for them to finish cooking and pulled out the muffins as the oven timer went off. It amazed me how she could possibly be so utterly domestic and still be so skilled on the battlefield. Wasn't it against the laws of nature to be perfect? Next thing you know she'll be demonstrating that she can dance and flower arrange, right before torturing Sasuke to within an inch of his life.

"It's a forbidden jutsu and I'd rather not be explaining where I got it. The less people that know about it, the better. There's chocolate syrup, strawberries and whipped cream in the fridge if you wouldn't mind getting them out for the pancakes." A large part of my brain wanted to suggest better uses for the toppings but I nipped that thought in the bud as I did what I was asked. That jutsu was far more important than the fantasies I could be entertaining myself with.

"If it's a forbidden jutsu then Tsunade definitely has to know that you know it, Sakura." She brought a basket with the muffins in it to the table, followed by a plate with the pancakes on it and a bottle of orange juice. She looked thoughtful, but not happily so as she motioned for me to start eating. I was still kind of caught up in how heavenly her cooking smelled.

"... I'll be right back." She shut off the stove and headed off in the direction of her room as I started to eat. I'd only had pancakes once before, and these won hands down. Not that Naruto was a particularly good cook, but these were so nice and fluffy and made absolutely perfect with a bit of whipped cream and strawberries.

"Here. Take it to Tsunade, please." She had come back and for some reason dropped a kunai with a red bandaged grip point down onto table, where it stuck. Taking it, I realeased the object henge, revealing a large red-edged scroll with a seal plainly reading 'forbidden' on it. I nearly choked.

"You stole the scroll?!" She snorted, taking a seat around the corner of the table and taking a muffin.

"Not likely, I was a little more worried about getting out of the village with my skin intact than stealing a scroll to a jutsu I already knew the basic mechanics of. That scroll's all in my own handwriting, I just scribed what I knew about the jutsu." I looked at the scroll again, noting the size and hefting it up in one hand.

"You were on the receiving end. How did you learn so much about it?" She swallowed the mouthful of muffin that was making her look uncannily like a chipmunk and gave me a slightly annoyed glance.

"I did a little research of my own to fill in the gaps. It's still not complete yet though, the human brain is the most complex organ in the body and I'm only one person." I couldn't help but gape at her. She had actually used this jutsu on someone? Apparently she saw an opportunity, because I barely saw the smirk cross her face before she popped a whipped cream covered strawberry in my mouth. I felt her nail drag lightly across my bottom lip and had to resist the urge to catch her finger in my teeth, and I'm pretty sure I was probably a very faint shade of pink.

"Don't look at me like that, I only used it on a willing participant and I never used it to cause pain. Although exploring his mind gave me a very thorough crash course on sex and just about everything to do with it." She stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked off the whipped cream left on it before returning to her muffin, causing my throat to go dry before registering what she had said.

"You used it on Jiraiya?! If Tsunade finds out you used it at all, that's already a felony, Sakura!" She looked at me calmly, pointedly swiping her finger through the whipped cream before licking it off slowly. My breathing stopped as I watched.

"Medical research. Very little is known about the brain, as I've already said, and I'm sure the knowledge would probably dissuade Tsunade from having me arrested. Especially since, as I've said, Jiraiya was a willing assistant and he knew full well what I was doing." My gaze was fixed firmly on her mouth as she spoke and I was having a very difficult time paying attention to what she was saying, because of some very explicit fantasies teasing me with what she could do with those perfect pink lips if she was so inclined. The fact that she kept licking crumbs off of her fingers certainly wasn't helping.

"If the information is so important, medically speaking, why not give it to Tsunade right away? Why hide what you know?" I felt like a damned teenager again as I desperately tried to tear my eyes away from her, now dipping strawberries and eating them, making sure to lick her fingers after every one of the small red fruits. She was doing it so casually, so naturally it was unbelievable. She was apparently oblivious to what she was doing to me, so maybe she hadn't learned as much from delving into the old perv's mind as she should have. But then again, she had gotten to be a skilled and believable actress, so who knows?

"I was waiting for the right time. I've both been trying to adapt it so that I can have it reclassified it as safe for specialized medical use, and I've been trying to finish mapping the brain with it. Once I could accomplish those two things, I had already started working on a counter jutsu, but there's a gaping flaw in it so I prioritized the research until I can figure the jutsu out better." The red juice staining her lips was as distracting as the languid way she was biting into the berries and licking droplets of said juice from the half eaten fruits. She was dipping them in chocolate now too, and the thought of how sweet she'd taste was tormenting.

"So, the jutsu's not finished? Giving it to Tsunade would mean that she could find people specifically for that sort of research, you know. I imagine that diving into Jiraiya's mind would be traumatizing." She swiped a strawberry through the whipped cream but didn't eat it. Her stained smirk made it look like her lips were slightly bruised, like they would probably look if I ever got the chance to kiss them properly.

"Actually, after getting past the fact that delving through his memories means experiencing sex from a guy's perspective, it's pretty fun. He found it to be the second funniest thing ever the first time I tried the jutsu and learned for the first time what sex was in the worst possible way. Here, last one. Say aah." I almost laughed out loud at the thought of a sixteen year old Sakura bright red as she realized that the sannin's mind really was as dirty as everyone said flooded my mind, but I caught up to the rest of what she had said. Still wearing that insolent smirk, she held out the last strawberry as if she expected me to take it. At this point, I'm almost positive that at least on some level she realized that she was teasing me, and was now doing it on purpose. Well, to resist or not to resist? That was the question, now wasn't it?

"So what does he think is the funniest thing? Aah." She leaned forward and popped the berry in my mouth, but unlike the last time, when she had caught me unawares, I didn't let her draw back her hand. The expression of surprise on her face at finding her finger caught between my teeth was, in a word, adorable. It was, however, quickly replaced once again by a smirk, and my teeth started to numb as she channeled chakra to her hand. I quickly let go, aware of what she could do with that chakra, although I doubt she'd seriously try to hurt me over something so trivial.

"He found out about the guy I was trying to get over my little crush on, that's all." She sat back up in her chair, her arm draped almost leisurely over the table as I wondered when exactly the top button of her nightshirt had come undone.

"Why would he find that funny?" She started to turn slightly pink and looked away from me, scratching the back of her neck in a gesture of embarrassment.

"Well, he sort of has a... reputation, and I had just figured out that ultimately, relationships were not all hugs and pecks on the cheek. We... **were** complete opposites, way back then. I **did** threaten that if he told **anyone**, that a certain busty blond medic would find out exactly what part she plays in his fantasies. Read: All of them." That time, I did laugh. Her head snapped back around to face me and she turned slightly pinker, looking almost indignant when she crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breast up into better view. Whether the last part was intentional or not, I wasn't sure, but I didn't mind the view anyway. "What's so funny, Kakashi?" Her tone might have been slightly threatening, if she wasn't so cute when she blushed. Or if I wasn't surreptitiously sneaking peeks down her shirt.

"It's not Genma, is it?" She groaned and stuck out her tongue, presumeably in disgust, before resting her crossed arms on the table with her chin on them.

"No, it's not Genma. What part of the way I interact with him gives you the idea that I would want a **relationship** with him?" Her tone wasn't angry, just exasperated. I smiled. It was a good thing that it wasn't the lecherous senbon sucker, because she'd be walking right into heartbreak. As beautiful, strong and smart as she was, Genma had never, ever been the serious type, he'd take a girl to his bed and be done with her within a week. I don't think he'd ever change, not even for a woman as amazing as Sakura.

"Well, you said he had a reputation and he's the most obvious person I can think of..." She rolled her eyes and stood up, collecting the dirty dishes. A small, knowing smile momentarily adorned her lips before she put the dishes in the sink.

"He's not the only man I know with a reputation. No worries though, I imagine you'll figure it out sooner or later. I'm patient." _Well, more than you used to be anyway._ It didn't matter, the only reason I really needed to know who it was was so that I could 'accidentally' tear him limb from limb after finding out how he felt about the pink-haired woman standing beside me. I dried and put the dishes away as she washed them, after quite a bit of protestation on her part. Apparently, guests aren't supposed to help. I'll have to keep that one in mind the next time she stays over at my place. Because I was positive it would be happening a lot.

Once we had finished and everything was clean and put away, it was already past eight, and the day had started. It was pretty nice out, the sun was shining and it was already shaping up to be a hot day, even at this early hour. After taking a glance at the cock and then out the kitchen window to see the brightening day, Sakura's face took a turn in the opposite direction and got darker. Grumbling too quietly to make out any actual words, she pulled out the hair elastic that was holding her slightly mussed up braid in and used her free hand to tousle the shiny waves that now cascaded across her shoulders like a cerise waterfall.

"The shop opened about an hour ago... I'm already late, damn it." She said it quietly as she turned and leisurely sauntered off in the direction of her room, probably saying it more to herself than to me. Late or not, I couldn't help but notice that she wasn't in any sort of rush and smirked slightly. Maybe Tsunade was right and I had rubbed off on her. Not that it really mattered, at least to me. Punctuality was overrated anyway.

"Kakashi?" She turned her head to address me, giving me just the slightest glimpse down her nightshirt as she started to undo the buttons. There was no way she was doing this intentionally, right? Not while being so casual. She almost looked... innocent.

"Hn?" I couldn't trust my voice to say anything else without seeming guilty, not while futilely trying to wrest my eyes from the slow striptease she was giving me.

"You never said whether or not you'd give that scroll to Tsunade. Will you?" Thankfully, once she was done unbuttoning she didn't remove the shirt yet, instead retreating into her room and mostly shutting the door. She did leave it open a crack, enough to speak and hear each other clearly but not enough to see anything. Apparently she felt shy this morning. A good thing, to be sure, because it gave me the time I needed to pick up the pieces of my nearly shattered control and make some attempt at repairing it. I couldn't afford to have it break down completely, because she'd probably kill me. Not figuratively, **literally**.

"Not able to take it yourself?" I took the opportunity while she was dressing to go do the same, leaving the borrowed pajamas folded on the bed before returning to my post outside her door. She must have sensed me leave and return, because she waited to reply until I had.

"Leave it to me and Tsunade won't see that scroll until I'm done with it, which could be another five years from now. You're the one who thinks it's so important to our interrogation squads." I nodded, even though she couldn't see. It was important, whether she understood how much so or not.

"I'll take it to her. It probably won't stop her from needing your input on the jutsu though." She emerged from the room, clad in black wraps clearly visible through a long-sleeved black mesh shirt, straight-legged black jeans and the studded collar and green sunglasses she had received for her birthday. While I admit that I liked the view, I can't say I enjoyed the thought of anyone else seeing that much of her skin exposed, even though she wasn't technically showing any more than you'd see normally in a bathing suit. Maybe the mesh just made her **seem** more naked, even though it should be creating the illusion of coverage. A smirk crossed my face as I imagined catching my fingers in her shirt to tease the skin underneath, maybe catching her by the ring on her collar to pull her into a kiss...

"Thank you, Kakashi. I'll answer when she asks, but she should be too busy to even get around to the scroll anytime soon." She smiled and walked slowly past me to the bathroom and rummaged for a plain black hair tie, pulling her pink waves into a ponytail. Pity, it looked nicer down... more touchable.

"Got a date?" I was only half joking. She wouldn't be dressed like that for training or just doing nothing. Well, actually... she did wear a skirt and high-heels to training yesterday, so who knows what she'd wear to do anything anymore? She grinned into the mirror without looking up from the drawer she was picking through.

"I'm going clothes shopping with Ino and Temari today, my closet really needs filling and I need an actual training outfit, some new boots and gloves too." How... fun. Well, it would be, if I knew she'd be shopping for lingerie, but somehow it didn't strike me as likely. Maybe the fact that she didn't appear to like bras enough to own any tipped me off.

"Sounds like a treat. I'm off to see the hokage then, before you decide that you need an extra person to carry your bags. See you, Sakura." She gave a little wave, her mouth occupied with the pink toothbrush and toothpaste bubbles spilling out over her bottom lip.

"Bye, 'Kashi!" I went out to the table and retrieved the scroll, tucking it into my vest pocket before heading out the door. Walking the appropriate distance from the house, about ten feet, I performed the seals to transport myself to hokage tower.

* * *

"Shizune! Dispatch three available ANBU to retrieve Mitarashi Anko, Morino Ibiki and Haruno Sakura! I want all three in my office in half an hour, no later, understand?!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" The door to the hokage's office shut quickly and the irate blond behind the desk kept shooting dirty glances at me as she hurriedly perused the detailed scroll I had handed to her seven hours ago.

"Am I finally free to go, hokage-sama?" Her famous glare fixed on me for almost a full second before returning to the scroll. She had kept me here all morning and part of the afternoon bombarding me with questions concerning the scroll, the jutsu contained therein and Sakura's methods of obtaining it. I had answered everything to the best of my ability, and now I just wanted to leave. I had no business here any longer, now that she had the scroll and was sending for Sakura herself, and I was kind of hungry.

"You're not going anywhere, Kakashi. Sit your ass down and wait." Her tone indicated that she had no intention of letting me leave, for whatever reason, and I sighed inaudibly in resignation. There were cushioned seating areas in the corner of the massive office and I sat down, hands in my pockets as I zoned out slightly.

Anko was the first to show, escorted by an ANBU woman with long, straight green hair so dark it was almost black. She left while Anko greeted the hokage and was waved over to take a seat and wait, just as I had been. Of course she did so, purposely letting her coat fall open and revealing her almost naked chest as she sat. It was a game she played with me. She'd flash me, get no sign of interest and redouble her efforts. She likely would've continued with this pattern like usual, if Ibiki hadn't shown up. He had always been one who could keep the lascivious woman mostly in line, and I was thankful. I didn't want to deal with it today, not if Sakura would be showing up shortly. The last thing I needed her thinking was that I had eyes for Mitarashi Anko.

The ANBU who had escorted Ibiki left immediately as Tsunade briefly waved the scarred man over to us to take a seat. Sitting between two routinely silent men and pretty much being forced to behave, Anko looked like a bored teenager. Tsunade was starting to look a little impatient herself, and once almost an hour had gone by, she looked absolutely murderous, her glances mostly aimed at me. What did she think, that I was hiding her former protege? It wasn't my fault that she was late.

_Well, speak of the devil._ Not more than a few seconds after that thought appeared my favorite pink-haired girl in an abbreviated cloud of cherry blossoms, sans escort. Tsunade looked fit to kill, but Sakura stood, arms crossed and apparently oblivious to the older woman's attitude.

"Why the hell are you late and where is the escort I sent for you?!" The blond looked about ready to jump over the desk and throttle her old student, but Sakura maintained her cool demeanor.

"My 'escort' remains unconscious on the floor of dressing room B in Kunoichi's Secret, where he tried to drag me from, less than half dressed, when he found me ten minutes ago. Your recruits must be getting rusty if it took him almost fifty minutes to to find me when I was doing absolutely nothing to hide, Tsunade-shishou." If it was possible, the blond looked even more infuriated at her student's highly amused and insubordinate tone, and a glance at the other two in the room told me that they, like myself, were on edge and expecting something to get destroyed in the very near future. Hopefully we wouldn't be here when it happened, and I'd get a chance to ask Sakura if she really beat down an ANBU while lingerie shopping. Maybe I should have gone with her...

"Alright, right now I don't give a damn anymore, you're here. All four of you, front and center. Now! Where the hell do you think you're going, Sakura? You're the guest of honor, so stay right where you are. Kakashi, right next to her, if you please. And by 'if you please', I mean that you don't have a choice. **Move it**, all of you!" All four of us fell in, the two spots dead center in front of her desk that she was pointing to being occupied by Sakura and I, with Ibiki on her left and Anko on my right. We waited in silence while Tsunade rerolled the scroll and without sealing it placed it on the clear edge of her desk, parallel to the edge with the word 'forbidden' clearly staring up at us. Her gaze switched between Sakura and I, though mostly settled on Sakura, who was standing with her hands in her pockets and looked infinitely more relaxed than the rest of us, for whatever reason. Someone had to teach the girl the meaning of the word 'discretion'. Even **I** knew better than to act like that when Tsunade was so clearly pissed off.

"Now, Sakura. Do you have anything to fill in before I start your briefing, or are we going to start?" The false sweetness and slight condescension in the hokage's voice plainly said that she wanted the blanks filled in, but faking density works surprisingly well, most of the time. Better than real density, anyway.

"No, I'm sure I've told that story once too often today, so I'm good. Knock yourself out, Shishou." She wasn't even bothering to look at Tsunade, instead inspecting the chipped nail polish on her right index finger. She caught the paperweight that was flung at her with barely a flicker of movement, pointedly stepping forward and placing it back on the edge of the desk where it had sat previously. Tsunade was twitching behind her desk and I felt rather than saw Anko and Ibiki edge slightly away from Sakura. After all, the best and most stoic ninja in the world could fall to the blond's temper and devastating strength, and even Ibiki wouldn't willingly step into the line of fire when it was somebody else provoking that temper. It might have been funny, if I wasn't standing right next to the one nonchalantly fanning the flames and would likely be the second target if she set her off any worse.

"Very well then, in this scroll is a forbidden jutsu that's been utilized by Mist nin for interrogation purposes for at least the last five years. Sakura here will be educating you three in a hands on manner on how to both utilize and counter this jutsu, after which time you three will pass it on to the rest of our interrogators. Don't give me that look young lady, if you refuse I'll have you arrested for withholding information and using a forbidden jutsu with neither permission nor license. You have today to teach all three of them. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind about subverting the law for your sake." Despite the glaring match the headstrong women were caught in, Sakura's reply was short, to the point and deceptively calm.

"I won't disappoint, hokage-sama." As she turned on her heel and calmly walked out of Tsunade's office, I caught the pain now mixed with the wrath in the blond's gaze. I could only imagine how she felt, the change of title indicating that the blackmail tactic she had pulled with Sakura was now resulting in a loss of the reverence the young woman once had for her mentor. Noting the danger associated with staying in the room, both Ibiki and Anko had followed Sakura after granting Tsunade a short bow or salute in farewell. I did the same, checking the desk to see that Sakura must have taken the scroll with her. Once all four of us stood outside Tsunade's office, Sakura immediately grabbed the rest of our attention with a simple gesture.

"There is a detailed diagram and a short summary of the jutsu right at the beginning of the scroll. It shouldn't take any one of you more than fifteen minutes to get the gist of it, but it's an important part of anything I'll be showing you. All three of you will meet me in the special training room in jounin headquarters in exactly one hour. I will work one on one with each of you until you you understand the jutsu to the capacity it will be used. Any questions?" Ibiki didn't look too pleased to be taking orders, but it was Anko who decided to voice the thoughts plainly pasted across his face.

"Yeah, why the hell are we taking orders from some little girlie medic playing drill sergeant? I remember your chuunin exams, **girl**, and I am not impressed with this little arrangement." Said 'little girlie' turned on the older kunoichi, drawing herself up to her full height, which just happened to be about half an inch taller than the brunette. Neither woman showed the slightest bit of anything but condescension, and I vaguely remembered my comment about Sakura gaining Anko's reputation. Her mesh attire coupled with the attitude she had just pulled in the hokage's office made me wonder if the offhand comment might not contain a grain of truth within it.

"Don't like it, tough shit. Take it up with Tsunade. Any other, less pointless, questions?" Anko looked like she wanted to strangle her.

"Now I remember you. Haruno Sakura, took her chuunin exams twice with two different teams. Referrals for your exams came from Hatake Kakashi and Sarutobi Asuma. Both times achieved full marks on your written exams without cheating, completely missing the point of the exam. Recently took your jounin exam, also receiving full marks on the written portion of the test. Am I correct?" Sakura nodded at Ibiki's assessment, but said nothing regarding it.

"If there's nothing else, I'll see you all in an hour." She handed the scroll to Ibiki and started down the hall towards the exit of the tower.

"How is it that we're being taught such an important jutsu by such a spoiled little wet behind the ears brat?" Anko was definitely not happy about this as the three of us all went to the appointed meeting place to read what we needed to from the scroll.

"I'd say she's anything but spoiled, nor is she all that green. We're learning this from her because she spent six months in a Mist prison having it used on her." Barely a glance from either one of them, although Anko fell silent. They had both been on the receiving end of countless hours of physical and psychological torture, as had I, and we all understood that this was not Sakura's choice, nor was she likely happy with this arrangement. I didn't mind being taught a jutsu by the pink-haired woman, I didn't have the same issues with seniority that the other two had, my main issue was that to be taught the jutsu I'd have to cause the girl pain. This brought to mind the emphasis Tsunade had placed on 'hands on', and I realized that this was part of her intent. Being caused pain by someone she trusted... this was part of Sakura's punishment for insubordination. The blond's tactics didn't sit well with me, and I wondered if maybe there might be another way to grasp the jutsu without the pain. Only one way to find out.

When we got to jounin headquarters and went to the special training room, I wasn't surprised to see it already booked in Sakura's name, her ninja ID number displayed in her neat writing in the register for at least four hours. The initial hour to prepare, plus no doubt an hour each to teach the jutsu. She had beaten us here, but she wasn't here now. Entering the room, there were three chairs, all old threadbare armchairs, situated around a long, low table made of cheap imitation wood. We each took a seat and Ibiki opened the scroll, rolling it out onto the length of the table. Judging roughly, I'd say that if unrolled fully, it was more than ten feet long and to make things worse, Sakura's handwriting was **tiny**. There was no way anyone could read it all in less than a week, forget fifteen minutes. I heard very faintly the collective breath drawn in by the other two, even though to their credit, they hid it well.

"You're fucking kidding me! She says we can get the gist of this in fifteen minutes?! That chick's fucking insane! But then, she'd have to be, to act the way she did... I might start to like this girlie. She's got attitude." I dragged the scroll towards me and located the summary, followed by an extremely detailed and well-drawn diagram of the brain. Pointing these out, I rolled up th scroll to cover everything else.

"These are the only parts she wants us to read. Fifteen minutes should be more than enough." I pushed the scroll back towards the other end of the table, where Ibiki took it and began to silently analyze and no doubt memorize what we had been told to read. When finished, he pushed it towards Anko who snatched it up to read draped across her lap.

"So, she used to be your student, didn't she? Was she always this bitchy, or are we just lucky today?" She talked while she read and she fidgeted too. It was moderately annoying the way she bounced the uppermost of her crossed legs, but I seemed to remember Sakura doing the same thing. Funny how it wasn't as irritating when she did it.

"Guess you're just lucky. She used to be almost bipolar in her temperament. She's actually mellowed out a lot since she came back." Anko snorted, inserting her hands in her pockets as she continued to read.

"This is mellowed out? Glad I wasn't in your place. I would have gone to town on that team of brats you got stuck with." She half rolled the scroll and tossed it to me, where I caught it and unrolled it enough to read.

"She was the most normal of my entire team and easily the simplest to deal with. She was fairly single-minded and easily subdued compared to the brooding golden boy and a competitive, hyperactive demon container." I smirked slightly. "Although I seem to remember **you** taking a liking to my dense blond ex-student." I couldn't see her scowl at me, because I was trying to absorb the contents of the scroll, but her voice said it loud and clear.

"Don't get all high and mighty on me, Hatake. Which rumor should I be believing about your favorite student, huh? Spreading her legs for the Uchiha brat, getting fucked by the legendary pervert author you admire **so** much or 'tutoring' with her **favorite** sensei? C'mon, spit it out, I'm just **dying** to know."

"I rather like my tutoring sessions, thanks for asking Mitarashi-san. As for the other two, for mentioning them you just volunteered to go first." Sakura's voice was cold, having stepping into the room just as Anko mentioned Jiraiya, although at her volume Sakura could likely hear her out in the hallway. Anko paled slightly, and I definitely understood why. I hadn't heard or felt her enter the room and If I hadn't been facing the door I wouldn't have known until she spoke. The other two both showed slight degrees of surprise, as mine was the only chair facing the door. Her ability to suppress chakra and move silently was flawless. She made a motion at Anko to get up, which the brunette ignored.

"Maybe you didn't hear me. You're first. Get up."

"Make me. I can perform the jutsu just fine sitting, thanks. Not the greatest suggestion, not while Sakura was angry. As if to validate my thoughts Sakura was beside Anko in less than a second, pulling her to a stand with strength that shouldn't rightfully belong to such a slender body, even if she was mostly muscle. Taking the now empty chair she slid it over to the far corner of the room, where there sat another chair that hadn't been there when we arrived. Vaguely, I remembered seeing her bring it in with her. Anko was cursing and rubbing her upper arm where Sakura had grabbed her when she made another motion with her hand, this time inviting the brunette to take a seat once again. Still swearing she did so, and Sakura turned to address us before sitting in the second chair.

"You two have the time while you wait to study the scroll, read, do whatever. If you wish to talk, do so quietly. Most importantly, no matter what you hear from either of us, do not interfere or interrupt." I nodded and the silent man at the other end of the table did so too. Satisfied, she turned her attention to Anko and I shifted mine back to the passage I hadn't absorbed a word of while talking. Now though, it wasn't all that difficult to grasp. The jutsu was one to invade the mind, allowing the user access to **everything** about the target.

Simple application of chakra on and in different areas of the brain had different effects, hence the need for the level of detail Sakura had managed to fit into the diagram. There was even allusions to viewing a person's memories, which explained a lot of what Sakura had said that morning. It also broached the subject of the four of our memories. She'd see things we had see, three of the most mentally scarred shinobi in Konoha and at the same time her own memories, some of which could get her tried for treason, would be fair game to the three of us. No wonder she had lost respect for the hokage, a woman who had once been like an overbearing older sister to her. Just by reading four or five lines of tiny writing and a diagram this little lesson took one step farther into unforgivable territory. Causing pain was bad enough, but the invasion of privacy just made the entire thing seem like... rape.

A choked, strangled cry of pain from Sakura caused my head to snap up and my eyes to focus on the two women. Within a moment Anko flinched visibly, one hand flying to her head for just a second. The two talked quietly, Anko speaking more more hurriedly than Sakura, who remained calm, before Sakura motioned for Anko to get comfortable. I didn't have a good angle to lip read using the sharingan, so I couldn't see or hear what was being said before Sakura performed a long sequence of seals, thirteen exactly, and placed her fingers against the back of Anko's neck, over the spinal cord and the base of her skull. Almost immediately Anko's face contorted in surprise, then pain, before a strangled gurgling erupted from her throat. This was followed shortly by rasping curses and a curt reply from the pink-haired woman, apparently unfazed by the odd sight. The gurgling died down and the brunette's breathing slowed , growing steady again as Sakura released the jutsu, talking quietly and calmly with her hand laid gently on the older kunoichi's shoulder.

This continued in cycles for the better part of an hour while I read farther into the scroll, a few minutes of pain, sometimes apparently so bad it provoked full blown screams, an amazing feat considering who was the one screaming, and afterwards a few minutes of calm to come down from the pain. At one point Anko seemed to get the hang of driving back the jutsu and once she was able to do it consistently, Sakura gave her leave to get up and go. She was finished with their lesson.

As Anko got up from her chair, her expression was a strange mixture of triumph and dazedness, one hand shielding her eyes from the overhead light as she left without a word. Sakura didn't get up nor even turn her head to address us two left.

"Decide which one of you is next and come take a seat, please." We glanced at each other and I gestured at the empty chair, indicating that he should go first. He nodded and did so while I turned back to reading Sakura's detailed observations on the brain and the jutsu itself. I had watched Anko's 'lesson', I had little reason to watch Ibiki's too, not when I could learn as much about this admittedly fascinating and immensely useful jutsu. It's practical applications could extend much farther than interrogation, if Sakura's notes were correct. I couldn't understand all of the technical medical terminology, but some of the things I did understand stuck out, such as the removal of memories, natural anesthesia by numbing the spinal cord and brain stem with chakra, disintegration and restoration of the senses and recovery from comas not associated with damage to the brain, to name a few. The potential of this jutsu and what it was actually being used for left a certain sour taste in my mouth, as I started to more fully comprehend why Sakura had been reluctant to hand over this jutsu to Tsunade and ANBU in it's unfinished state. Why hadn't I just trusted her judgment?

"Kakashi." I snapped out of my thoughts to realize that we were alone in the room. Ibiki must have picked it up quickly, because his lesson only lasted a little over half the time Anko's had. Sakura was partially turned in her chair to face me, her features soft and slightly haunted as she waved me over. I rolled the scroll up tightly and sealed it, getting up and crossing the room to the empty armchair beside her. She patted the chair and I sat, watching her intently. Her nose had been bleeding and she looked beyond exhausted as she handed me a pen and a tiny scroll, only two inches wide and a couple feet in length, edged in yellow. A contract?

"Sakura..." She gestured at the scroll.

"Read it and add your signature so we can get this over with, alright?" She sounded exhausted too. Frowning, I opened the scroll and read it. It was uncharacteristically short, informal and to the point, a nondisclosure agreement. Nothing seen or heard in this room between any two people who signed it was ever to be shared publicly or privately on punishment of memory removal. The jutsu on the seal was a powerful one, and it guaranteed that, once closed, it would never be destroyed as long as one of the owners of a signature on the scroll was alive, and that it was completely legal and binding, despite it's informality. It was reassuring, slightly, although I doubt Sakura would share anything she happened to see in my head anyways. God, shit was going to hit the fan if she happened to come across one of the dozens of fantasies I entertained about her. Resigning myself to the likely dismemberment that was going to follow up this lesson, I signed my name legibly next to the other three already on the scroll and handed it back to her, where she rolled it up and it sealed itself.

"Alright, you had a good amount of time to study that scroll. Any questions or concerns before we start? Jeez, it feels weird, this role-reversal thing." She had sat back in the chair, her hands resting gently on the arms of the upholstered armchair. I understood what she meant, and quirked a small smile at her being the sensei rather than the other way around.

"Are you okay to be doing this? You look like you're running on empty, Sakura." She nodded, taking a second to crack her knuckles before returning her hands to the chair's arms.

"I'll live. Unfortunately, I can't ignore Tsunade's orders, even if I'm tired. Forgive me if I don't try as hard to cause you pain as I did the other two while you're learning to counter the jutsu. After both of them, I just don't have it in me anymore. You should pick it up alright even if I'm not too invasive, I think." She sighed in a mixture of fatigue and resignation, while I still did not want to do this. I wasn't ANBU anymore, I hadn't been an interrogator in years, and I knew I wasn't going to be made to train recruits with this jutsu. Tsunade was just doing this to punish Sakura, and I couldn't help but feel a little irked about being used to that end. It didn't help things that I knew Sakura was right, that we didn't have much of a choice. Reluctantly, I finally gave admission that I was ready to start. She demonstrated the thirteen seals, all separately so as not to activate the jutsu herself, before pointing out the points where to insert chakra into the body, the temples, eyes or base of the skull.

"Now, the first part is the jutsu itself. You'll get inside my head, poke around a bit to familiarize yourself with how to control chakra within another's body, then you're going to attempt to cause me pain, which is the point after all. If you read the diagram at all, you should have a pretty good grasp of that part. The second part isn't as easy. I'll be using the jutsu on you, and you'll be attempting to push my chakra back into my own body. It takes pretty exact control and more than a little guesswork, but even without exact instructions the other two got it okay. You shouldn't have any problems." I nodded and slid my chair closer to hers. Her noted had described the spinal column as the easiest point of entry and that was where I planned on doing this from, so I had to be able to reach. I performed the seals and cupped the back of her neck, allowing the thin streams of chakra that I sent out to penetrate her skull as her eyes slid partially shut and she let her head fall back onto my hand and the chair cushion.

Now, chakra runs in set pathways throughout the body, except in a couple of the largest internal organs, the brain included. Most healers actively avoid running their own chakra into or through another persons circulatory system unless absolutely necessary, due to the intimacy involved with mixing chakra. Now, the brain is like a reservoir or a lake in the circulatory system, which leads me to the point of this little explanation. I felt... exposed, and incredibly uncomfortable at first as I 'poked around' her brain. This was closer than I had ever allowed myself to get to anyone, period, and while the idea wasn't entirely unpleasant to me, knowing that Sakura was basically being forced into this still made it feel like I was violating her, in a sense. It felt wrong.

I did as she suggested, getting myself familiar with the tentative and hazy control I had over my own chakra, when I came upon the section of the brain where her memories were stored. Instantly my senses were assaulted with Sakura's memories. They appeared as puffs of cloud or steam in a variety of colors, and I seemed to remember reading a note that only the more emotionally significant memories appeared as such, more mundane memories simply fading until they were to small to touch even with perfect chakra control.

Curious, I touched a bluish one and I got the sensation that I was clutching someone tightly to my chest. I was crying, that was certain, and I felt a hand brush my cheek. Opening my eyes, I took the hand that was trying to wipe my tears, noticing the blood covering it before I looked at his face. His chocolate brown eyes were barely half open and it was obvious how much pain he was in. We were both covered in blood, blood that I knew instinctively was his, but I knew that I couldn't heal him. I had done this to him. A bare hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips and I brushed his hair out of his face, dark brown hair that matched his eyes. I leaned forward and touched his bloodstained and lacerated cheek with my lips, whispering a silent goodbye as his last breaths escaped him. I had broken out in full blown sobs now as I slowly and purposefully removed his headband and necklace, putting them away in my pack before taking him off of my lap and performing a jutsu to cremate his body, like they would back home to keep the sharingan from falling into enemy hands. The crushing sadness and dispair I was feeling as the scene played out was only magnified when I looked up and through blurry eyes saw what I assumed was Sasuke sprawled several yards away across the rocky, sandy red plain. I stopped touching that cloud, feeling almost sick as I witnessed Itachi's last moments through Sakura's eyes. The sadness I had felt as her was akin to when I had lost Obito, Rin and Minato-sensei. I had to wonder exactly how she had come to care for him so much as I moved on and touched another large wisp, this one sort of yellow, or gold.

This one provoked a happier feeling. I was pinning down a slightly younger Naruto, under Jiraiya's approving watch, but my hands were different and it was brown hair curtaining my vision, not pink. Confused, I stopped and picked another wisp, this one gray.

This one was undeniably frustration, and maybe a bit of jealousy. I was standing at the top of a tree and looking down. Much farther down the trees were a twelve year old Naruto, Sasuke and me, when I had actually been their sensei. Our first mission in Wave country, when I had taught the three to climb trees. Sakura had gotten it down pat almost right away.

_Stupid sensei, paying so much attention to Naruto-baka and Sasuke when they can't even **do** it yet. Stupid Baka and Sasuke, it's **your** fault he doesn't care about me, it's 'cause you're both **geniuses**. Stupid, **stupid** boys!_

I pulled away from that wisp, shocked at the revealing insight her inner monologue had given me. She had actually felt resentment towards all three of us, Sasuke included. We really shouldn't have ignored her so much. Picking another wisp, a relatively large black one, I found it to be much more recent.

Anger, and lots of it. Sasuke on his stomach in his blue jounin uniform and green flak vest, with me holding his arms up behind his back and sorely tempted to break them. I pulled back away from the wisp. I had witnessed the fight from the sidelines, and I didn't need her own anger reawakening my own at that particular situation. I picked another wisp of the same size, but indeterminate color.

Happiness and pain, mixed with a whole lot of confusion, but mostly happiness. It was raining and I was standing on one foot, my arm unmoving at my side while the nails of my other hand dug into a very familiar flak vest. I pulled away from the wisp. Her birthday. I picked another one, this one almost black, but slightly red.

An ANBU lying face down on the floor of a mirrored room while I checked his pulse and pulled off his mask. Sai. After determining that he was merely unconscious, I proceeded to stand back up and was awarded with a very clear view of Sakura from all angles in a silky black teddy, sheer enough to see through. I pulled away quickly, hoping to god that I didn't have a nosebleed when I was done this.

"Kakashi? That's enough poking around my memories, please. I think you can control the jutsu well enough to accomplish the needed ends." Ah, that's right. By seeing them myself I was making her relive them too. Well, that last one at least answered the question of whether she had really been lingeries shopping when she was summoned. Still curious and not really minding the slightly voyeuristic foray into her mind anymore, I didn't particularly want to stop perusing her memories, but this lesson was based on trust. She trusted me to stop when she asked, and so I did.

"Do you still want me to try and hurt you?" I know I didn't want to do it.

"Yes. It's part of the lesson, to make sure that you can use the jutsu appropriately for the purpose you're learning it." I frowned, but went about applying pressure to the brain, flooding her system with chakra. She shrieked, tearing away from me and holding her head, her nose bleeding once again.

"How far ahead did you read?! That was **not** how you were supposed to do it, Kakashi!" Her voice came out in a pained hiss and I recoiled under her unfocused gaze. That might not have been how I was supposed to do it, but it was far more efficient and short for the both of us.

"I read the first twenty two and a half inches of the scroll. It may not have been proper, but it was fast enough that you didn't waste your chakra countering me, and I still achieved the appropriate result. Are you alright?" She nodded, still holding her head as she massaged her temple. I decided to ask some questions to stall the rest of the lesson, just for the moment. Like it or not I did feel bad, even though I had done as I was asked.

"Sakura? That memory about Naruto..." She nodded.

"It's real. Sometimes when Jiraiya came to check on my progress he had Naruto with him. Naruto never knew it was me, because he would have dragged me back to Konoha, but on occasion Jiraiya would have us train with each other, to allow him free time for 'research'. That's how I learned that I could block the rasengan, actually." I smiled slightly.

"So, if I ask Naruto about a brunette named Mayu, he's going to say he trained with her once in a while when he was away with Jiraiya?" She nodded, a smile creeping slowly over her face, eyes shut.

"I couldn't ever use the techniques I learned from Tsunade, because he would've known immediately that it was me, so I'll never forget the first time I had him eating dirt. His expression was so funny, he couldn't believe he had lost to a girl!" She actually giggled, but fliched after, as if the sound had made her headache worse. Now I couldn't help but feel really bad, as I had been the only one not to see her during her absence. Had she missed me any more than Naruto, whom she had seen periodically?

"You beat him without your brute strength? I'm not surprised. You're highly capable of it, but you seem to rarely use it anymore. Can I ask you another question?" She nodded, still smiling.

"Go ahead, we have time." She relaxed slightly back in her chair, headache apparently eased somewhat.

"Did you really keep Itachi's headband and necklace?" She opened her eyes wide, surprised, before relaxing again and looking at me with a soft smile.

"Sasuke has his necklace, just like the ring and cloak." She lifted her hand to her own headband, the color of dark, dried blood, pulling it out and laying it out on her lap. Performing the seal with an authoritative 'Kai!', she released the henge, revealing a black banded, scratched out Konoha forehead protector.

"Haven't worn my own since that day." I couldn't help but gape at her slightly, taking the metal plate in my own hands and pulling the fabric away from the back to confirm what she had just told me. Uchiha Itachi. Engraved right in the metal, just like every other genin who's given their own headband. I handed it back to her and she performed the henge again, tying it back into her hair.

"Why? You said that you didn't have any mementos of Itachi, so why did you lie?" She flinched as if I had struck her.

"Because nobody, not even Sasuke, knows that I have this. I didn't think I'd ever explain my relationship with Itachi to anyone, so how could I say that I wear his headband to honor his memory? I couldn't." I felt a twinge of something... betrayal, maybe? Knowing that she had fibbed about something so trivial, but at the same time I felt trusted and honored that she had told me about Itachi. Whether or not her feelings ran deeper than she said was still to be seen, but it wouldn't matter anyway. No point harboring jealousy for the deceased.

"Ready to continue? We only have the room for another hour or so." I nodded as I tried to think. When had she put on her headband anyway? She hadn't been wearing it this morning nor when she was summoned, she was plainly walking around as an off-duty shinobi. Maybe when she told us to meet her here she went home.

"Yeah, I'm ready."She smiled and leaned over our armrests. After telling me to close my eye, she quickly performed the seals and gently pressed her fingertips to my eyelid. The sensation of her chakra, warm and oddly solid feeling, passing through my eye and into my brain was slightly disconcerting at first, but quickly grew comfortable. I didn't mind her choice of entry so much, except that I had to close my eye and couldn't watch her. I was surprised at her tight control over her chakra as she navigated my brain, staying far away from the area where memories were stored, when I had had such a difficult time moving my chakra in more than a haze through her own. The sensation started to feel nice, comforting and wholly addictive. I didn't want to try and get her out of my system. Her chakra flooded a tiny area and I distinctly smelled mint.

"Not going to try for my thoughts?" She brushed another section and I briefly felt heat in my left hand.

"That wouldn't be fair. You can't pick and choose what I can and can't see like I could to you." I raised an eyebrow slightly. She had let me see those memories? Why would she show me such personal things? She settled the stream of chakra on another place and this time left it there. I could feel my body cool down slightly all over.

"I see. So, any hints on how I'm supposed to do this?" I tried to gather my own chakra, but that was difficult, as the brain isn't something you can consciously control the chakra flow through, due to the lack of distinct channels.

"Takes concentration. It's your body's natural impulse to expel foreign matter, and that applies to chakra as well. If I just kept this up like this, your body would have me out in a matter of hours. It's just a matter of speeding things up, mimicking natural functions." _Ah, I see. Now that's a lot easier._ I started to speed up my own chakra flow, aware that I was burning it as fast as if I had the sharingan uncovered. That must be the flaw that she had mentioned earlier. After a second or so, the jutsu ended, even though some of her chakra remained in my system. Her hand fell to my arm, her own limp. She was draped over the arms of our chairs and I quickly checked her pulse. She was alive, but driven to unconsciousness from overusing her chakra. She wouldn't be waking up anytime soon.

I got up from the chair, gathered up the two scrolls and put them away in my vest pockets before gently, carefully, picking her up out of the chair. I performed the seals and the room disappeared in a whirlwind of gray smoke, once again depositing me in hokage tower. I dropped the red scroll in Tsunade's inbox silently while the blond herself napped face down on her desk and once again, the room disappeared, this time to be replaced with the hall outside of my apartment door.

Opening it, I kicked off my sandals and went to set her down on the bed, covering her up warmly with the blankets. I was met with a slight surprise when I tried to leave her though. Her left hand, the bandaged one, was clawed into my sleeve, and it made for the cutest picture, like she was holding on for dear life. Leaning down, I couldn't resist the urge to kiss her gently.

_Oh well, it was almost dark out... maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go to bed early?_


	18. 17

**GR's note:**_ Thanks to everyone who reads this,I'm so glad you're enjoying this! Updates are still just going to be as often as I am able to get them up, because great things take time, of course. ^_^ Every comment is fully appreciated, because comments = love! See you for chapter 18!_

-17-

As I opened my eyes, I realized immediately that it was dark. _How embarrassing, I must have passed out while trying to finish up the lesson with Kakashi._ I was laying down, on a bed, so maybe he took me to the hospital? No, I'm sure he's figured out by now that I hate hospitals. Besides, there was no smell of soap or disinfectant that hospitals by definition are saturated in. Actually, it smelled kind of like training... kind of hard to explain actually...like steel and trees and maybe a bit of blood and dirt. It wasn't an unappealing smell, in fact it was really comforting and familiar, even with that faint hint of laundry detergent mixed in. Recognizing the scent I sat up, unsure if I was dreaming, to examine the bedspread I was laying on to be sure I was right. I was, although I really shouldn't have even needed to sit up, the arm curled protectively around my waist being enough of an indicator that I obviously wasn't in my own bed. As I started to become more aware of my surroundings, I had to wonder why exactly my entire left hand was numb, though a quick glance answered that question for me. My bandaged fingers were clenched tightly around the sleeve of what appeared to be Kakashi's sweater and when I did let go, I could see the faintest traces of blood darkening the white gauze and felt the slightest twinge of pain as the numbness faded.

Even though I was technically awake I was still tired, drained and still had a massive headache from Kakashi just leaving a large deposit of his chakra in my system to stagnate. My body clock told me that it was late, probably sometime between one and two in the morning, so I hadn't slept long enough to replenish myself or to expel the remainder of the foreign chakra from my system and the static-like tingle of it was leaving me sort of twitchy. What had woken me up though?

I became minutely aware of Kakashi's pulse and breathing quicken to a waking pace against my back and stuck my tongue out at nothing. I hadn't meant to wake him, because he probably needed the rest as much as I did. Reaching down beneath the blankets I decided to take advantage of his temporary wakefulness and untied the sneakers I had worn today, borrowed from my mother's closet, slipped them off and set them on the floor beside the bed. Next I reached up and removed my ponytail and forehead protector, setting the latter down on top of my shoes while I slipped the black hair tie around my wrist. Kakashi's fingers caught in the mesh as I started to remove my shirt, there being no point in sleeping in it when it wasn't covering anything anyway, and that apparently snapped him to attention.

"Feeling better?" I tossed the shirt in a ball onto the bare dresser before wriggling out of my jeans, the waistband being dug firmly into my hipbones, and tossed them with my shirt, leaving me in my black wraps, black socks and bright orange panties. I scrunched up my nose at my own odd color sense, wondering what had possessed me to wear the strange combination.

"Sort of. I think I still need some sleep though, I think my clothes woke me up." Well, seeing as there wasn't any other apparent reason aside from discomfort, that must have been it. There came a low chuckle from behind me and I smiled sleepily.

"Sorry, I wasn't about to strip you down while you were unconscious, Sakura." My sleepy smile shifted to one side in a mild smirk.

"So you would have if I had been awake?" I was only joking, but I'm not even sure if he caught that and the thought caused me to blush slightly. I really was an idiot when I was tired.

"I have a feeling that I'm going to get into a lot of trouble if I answer that question honestly, so I'm not even going to try." I felt a giggle erupt in my throat. Did he honestly think I was in any condition to enact any sort of retribution on him for saying no? Not that I would anyway, I wasn't that sensitive and I had no doubt that that's exactly what he would say anyway. Just like I had no doubt that I wouldn't remember this conversation when I really woke up, I was too drained and my brain just wouldn't retain it. Not consciously.

"Hn... It's alright, I'm probably not your type, right? I'm too young, you probably still see me as a kid..." I was drifting off again, and I vaguely touched my face. What had happened to my glasses? Maybe he had put them aside for me, so they wouldn't get broken. My collar was still on though, but it wasn't bothering me so I didn't worry about taking it off. I felt Kakashi's weight shift on the bed behind me and was pulled against his chest, the action snapping me awake at once. He was ice-cold, as if he was still under the effects of the jutsu.

"Sakura..." A sort of mournful murmur into my shoulder, but I barely noticed his odd tone, rolling forward and pushing myself up on my hands to look at him. The look of surprise on his face as he let go of me told me that I wasn't hiding my concern too well as I started to check him over. Even if I had passed out before completing the lesson, the minuscule amount of chakra I would've left behind should have dissipated by now, allowing his body to return to its normal state. He grabbed my wrists and sounded slightly distressed as I placed my hands on his bare skin and attempted to examine his condition.

"What are you doing?!" I glared slightly, but he didn't let go of me.

"Leaving your body temperature this low for so long might cause problems and need medical treatment, Kakashi. Please let go of me so that I can make sure I didn't royally screw up something in your body this afternoon." He seemed to calm down and he let go of me at least, allowing me to check him over. Other than the abnormally low temperature and high heart rate, there wasn't really anything wrong with him, and I let out a soft sigh n relief. His chakra flow must have been pretty low when he went to sleep, just like mine, and it took him a little longer than normal to expel my chakra than it normally would have. He'd be mostly alright once his body righted itself, maybe a little stiff from the lack of heat though.

"Sakura?" I smiled and let my hands linger on his washboard stomach for just a moment before I flopped back down, my headache returning with a vengeance from using chakra that I shouldn't have.

"One reason I hate that jutsu. There's so many ways to mess up the body's naturally delicate state, it's just not funny." I pulled the blankets back up over us and snuggled backwards into his chest, thinking absently that body heat would speed up the process. A small smirk crossed my lips and I curled up my fingers, the skin feeling ever so slightly tingly from the little touch of him I had managed to steal.

"... I have to apologize for today. This wasn't your fault, I should have just trusted your judgment in the first place. It wasn't any of my business to tell you to hand it over to Tsunade." I smiled slightly, shaking my head before turning my head to bury my nose in my pillow. It smelled like me more than him though, a fact I attributed simply to me having slept on it for four days and five nights before he spent the night at my house, probably not sleeping. After all, he hadn't ever been a particularly heavy sleeper and he had probably heard me pacing while I tried to figure out how to get rid of my most recent nightmares. I had wondered more than once if I should ask him to put me to sleep, but decided against it every time. I knew his sharingan would send me for a dreamless sleep, but it didn't seem right to ask him to use it for something as trivial as a few bad dreams.

"No apologies. I should have handed it over to her five years ago and washed my hands of it. Jiraiya would have told her where I had been and why he had been late with my progress report, and she would have had me dragged back to the village kicking and screaming by a squad of ANBU officers before putting me under psychological surveillance for the next six months to make sure I wasn't going to go nuts from the experience. Maybe then she wouldn't have been so damned spiteful today." _Things would really have been different then, wouldn't they?_ The scroll had exact instructions on the use of the jutsu, if you read the entire first section, which had been everything I learned while being on the receiving end. I knew that it was nothing more than annoyance at me that caused Tsunade to call me in to teach it. I also suspected that there wasn't any real reason to teach Kakashi, but you never know, maybe she actually did want him to instruct others in it.

"It wasn't right of me to snoop through your memories either, I shouldn't have done that either." I let out an exasperated sigh. I know I told him that those memories were some of the ones I deemed appropriate for him to peruse, so why was he apologizing, really?

"I already told you, if I really though you shouldn't have seen it, I would have blocked it off from view. You think Anko and Ibiki are going to apologize for being nosy? That's why I wrote up the contract, Kakashi." Silence. He didn't have anything to say in the face of logic, and I settled down and started to drift off again. I had sensed earlier on that day that he hadn't been very comfortable learning the jutsu, not unlike Anko, who had been quite hostile about it, or Ibiki, who just did it with coldly silent disapproval. I'd bet that Kakashi's reasons were wholly different than that of the other two, even if I wasn't quite sure what they actually were. Kakashi knew me well enough to know that I wasn't going to boss him around for the hell of it, but then, he wasn't Anko, who pushed my buttons my buttons to the point where keeping her in line was just a chore, or Ibiki, who was so used to being the one giving the orders that he became an obstinate prick when taking them from someone of a lower rank than himself. These thoughts bubbled around the surface of my mind as I started to drift into a haze, signifying that sleep was near, and when Kakashi's arm wrapped itself around my waist again, I barely registered than the skin against my back was warm again.

"Sleep well." He whispered it softly into the curve of my neck and I shivered slightly, his breath trailing over my skin and creating a sensation not at all conducive to a restful sleep.

"'...'night, Kakashi." Cuddled as we were, his hand splayed across my stomach and resting over the elastic waist on my panties, I couldn't help but wonder exactly how I was supposed to get any actual sleep, but I wanted the contact too much to move away, to possibly try and block out the sensations he was inadvertently the cause of. Other curiosities came to mind, namely the question of why he had brought me to his apartment instead of my house and why we were even cuddling like this, like lovers, when we fell firmly into the category of 'friends'. It didn't really matter what I was thinking though, because of course, I wouldn't remember when I woke up. Especially if we were still like this when I woke.

* * *

_This was a dream. It had to be. Nowhere else do you feel not quite there, like nothing seems real. Nowhere in Fire Country was there scenery like this either, and there's no possible way that in the space of one night I had managed to sleepwalk all the way to the far side of Wind country. Yes, I recognized the landscape alright, and it was a place that I had hoped never to see again. The sun and __sky shone red in the lights of dawn, turning the hot stone and sand plain into a sea of blood. Blood that stained my hands._

_"**Kunoichi.**" I didn't turn at first, despite realizing that this wasn't a memory, like all my other nightmares, and knowing who was addressing me. He was the only person who ever called me that, most mindless thugs calling me something degrading like 'pinky', or just plain 'Hana', and most others who knew me personally used something resembling or stemming from my name. No, for him 'Sakura' was too personal, whereas a nickname, however well thought out, was not his style and so we agreed that my profession was as good as anything else to call me by._

_"**Don't ignore me, kunoichi.**" I turned in the middle of the barren field to face him. He didn't look much different from what I remembered, save for his sharingan being deactivated. His eyes like this were chocolate brown, just like his hair, and deeper than the farthest reaches of the ocean. If it was possible, those eyes, tinted a deep red in the odd light, were more mesmerizing than his sharingan, or even the mangekyou. My chest tightened. Why was my mind doing this to me? It wasn't enough to kill him, now I have to bring him back every night?_

_"**To what do I owe the pleasure, Itachi-sama?**" As I said the words that I actually meant to say, it dawned on me that not only was this not a nightmare, it was a lucid dream. I could control myself and the things I said and did, an extreme rarity in my dreams. He was watching me intently, with a slightly softer gaze than I had normally been used to. He wasn't wearing anything I had ever seen on him before either, and even looked a bit younger. Sure, I had known that he had been ANBU at one point, but I had never seen a picture of him that young, so how was I dreaming of him like this?_

_"**You should look to yourself for the answer to that question. You called me here, not the other way around.**" I crossed my arms over my chest, slightly cold. Looking down, I realized that I was standing there in just my sleep apparel; black socks, black wraps and orange panties that looked red in this light. Not that it mattered, it was a dream. I wasn't really standing in a wasteland somewhere on the other side of Wind country, this wasn't real._

_"**Did I do the right thing? What would have happened if I had let you kill him?**" It was obvious that Itachi was just the representation of my own subconscious, so I probably wouldn't get any different of an answer than when I asked myself those questions every other night. At least, I thought so._

_"**Right and wrong are just a matter of perception, kunoichi. Yes, you did the 'right' thing. If Sasuke died, you wouldn't have killed me, nor would you have been able to return to the village with a clear conscience. You wanted to give him the chance, because you didn't know he would become like this, and so it was the decision that was made for us. There was no other way things could have transpired, kunoichi. You know that, and you should stop feeling guilty about events that were beyond your control.**" I almost didn't know how to react. My subconscious wouldn't say that, so what's going on?_

_"__**It seems unfair to trade one life for another.**__" He stood relatively still, with just the slightest hint of a mocking smirk to taint the edge of the emotionless veneer. Exactly as I remembered. Too bad __that it wasn't necessarily a good thing. I touched my forehead gently, forgetting for the moment that I wasn't wearing my-__his__ headband._

_"I__** see you haven't lost all of your charming naiveté, kunoichi. Life isn't fair, and as a shinobi **__**you should be well aware of that. If you had stood back and allowed me to kill my brother, you would have condemned me to live until some hunter-nin, ten years down the line when I had lost my sight completely, decided to take it upon themselves to kill me anyway. After my services to Konoha, I was no longer needed. Instead, Sasuke lived and you granted me some semblance of an honorable death, my health and sight restored.**__" I swallowed sharply._

_"**You could have come back with me! Akatsuki was gone, there wasn't anything holding you back from returning to the village! Tsunade-shishou would've understood about your situation, she would have erased your status as a missing nin! I know she would have!**" He took a step towards me, a dry chuckle escaping him._

_"**What would have been the point? I couldn't have what I wanted even if I did return, and Sasuke's hatred would never be abated even were the truth to be made known. He's subconsciously shifted his need for revenge onto you, because you accomplished what he couldn't. For this I apologize, kunoichi. Even I couldn't predict what his time with Orochimaru had done to his mind, or I would have done things differently. He will seek to dominate you, to possess you, and in the end when he can't, he will seek to destroy you, the same as he did for me.**" I found my brow furrowing at the newfound revelation I was being provided with. My situation with Sasuke would never cease, It would become a vicious cycle, escalating in severity until there was nowhere else to go. He'd pick a fight, I'd win and it would just make things worse between us. There would be no regaining the dysfunctional friendship we once had, he wouldn't be moving on when he realized that he couldn't have me, this would just keep going until one or both of us died from it. Looking back up to where Itachi had been standing, I was slightly surprised to see that he had disappeared, and also immensely sad. Was the dream over? Was it time to wake up?_

_"**You're stronger than he is, I know it. I once told you that you interested me, but it wasn't just your lack of fear when you looked at me that made me say it. Your strength and conviction are evident in every word you speak, every gesture you make. Even if he tries to kill you, I know you will do what I couldn't and survive, becoming even stronger for it. He will make you hate him, despise and detest him, but don't let yourself fall to his level. Don't kill him out of hatred, do so only because you need to, to protect someone you truly care about.**" A slight tingle on the curve of my shoulders and the distinct presence behind me told me where he had gone, and a glance to my shoulder revealed black gloved hands. I swallowed softly, wondering if this was my imagination playing tricks on me. He hadn't ever touched me before he was laying on my knees dying, so why would he do it in my dreams?_

_"**Why are you here, Itachi-sama? Is this real, or just my imagination?**" I felt soft breath on my shoulder as his right hand slid down my arm to clasp my own and bring it up to cover my eyes. It was an odd sensation, to be touched but feel neither warmth nor cold._

_"Y**ou remember, I pulled you into Tsukiyomi during our battle here. I left a bit of my consciousness within you to stop you from being consumed by guilt. I wont be able to do this again, see you like this, but know that I am as much at peace as someone like me could ever hope for, and that's because of you. Accept my parting gift and my final apologies, for making you face an impossible choice.**" Faintly I felt something soft brush the scallop of my ear before my eyes started to burn behind our hands. I didn't scream or flinch, because the pain wasn't that bad, but it continued through the rest of his farewell._

_"__**Maybe we shall meet again, in another life when your heart isn't being held captive by another. I think I'd enjoy that, provided that I'm given the second chance. Goodbye... Sakura.**__" I __tried to say something, ask him what he meant or even say my own farewell, but my voice wasn't working. The burning was getting worse and trying to open my eyes, I saw only black._

* * *

"What the hell was that?" It's official, I'm insane. I'm having dreams about someone I killed where he's as out of character as he could possibly be. And ANBU gear? What is it, some sort of fetish I have that I didn't even know about? God, I should be tossed in a rubber-walled room with a straitjacket on and just left there.

"What the hell was what?" I jumped, startled. I had forgotten that I was once again sharing a bed. Opening my eyes, I groaned in pain and immediately shut them again. _Stupid sunlight, way too bright. Stupid vision, all blurry._ Sensitivity to light and blurred vision, great. Probably both caused by an overload of chakra in the brain that nicked the optic nerve, damaging it. Healing my eyes was not something that I wanted to spend time doing aside from after genjutsu training.

"Nothing. Weird dream, that's all." I rolled so that I was flat on my back with my head on the pillow and placed my fingers over my temples, threading chakra into them to see what was wrong. I kept my eyes shut to avoid the sunlight and quickly found the problem. Chakra, and lots of it, pooled in and around my eyes. Not too much of a problem to sort out, I just had to drain it back into my system. Thankfully, the remainder of Kakashi's chakra had been expelled, otherwise this already delicate task would have been made so much more difficult.

"What about?" Starting the process, I pulled the excess energy that was sticking to the optic nerves away, revealing light damage, as I had initially suspected. I cracked the eye closest to him just slightly as I started to repair the damage. Through my slowly clearing vision I saw him back away from me a little, but I couldn't make out any detail from his expression.

"What are my dreams normally about? We've already gone over this, Kakashi." I felt him pull my hands away from my head and I opened both eyes. Frowning, I sighed. I wasn't finished yet, and he was staring at me in completely horrified rapture. I didn't even want to know what was wrong.

"What were you just doing?" I groaned softly and closed my eyes. Even holding them open for a few seconds bothered me.

"Trying to fix my eyes. The optic nerves are damaged from being overloaded with chakra and my vision's all blurry." He let go of my hands.

"Do what you were doing again and then open both eyes." Too much in pain to care, I decided that I'd just humor him. I started healing my eyes again, taking notice of the fact that something was a little... **off** about my nerves, though I couldn't quite put a finger on what it was. Opening my eyes, I immediately was treated to the sight of Kakashi drawing back away from me again, though this time my sight was clear enough to make out the expression of mixed confusion and concern plastered across his face.

"What's the matter? If it's my eye color, yes I know my eyes turn darker when I run chakra through them, it's a biological adaptation to using them for genjutsu. I'd bet that yours would turn completely black in the same situation." He was shaking his head and he took my hands away again. I let out an exasperated breath as he pulled me up to a sit.

"Sakura, I think there's something you should see." My vision was almost clear now and if it would allow me to finish sooner, then I wouldn't fight. Maybe one of my irises had been damaged as well and had a spot, or maybe a ring on it. In any case he dragged me to the bathroom and stood me in front of the mirror over the sink, holding my shoulders as he stood behind me. I noted for the first time with a bemused smile that he was only clad in a pair of orange boxers with red slashed circles all over them, ratty from being worn way too often, and had probably slept that way.

"What am I looking for?" I looked perfectly fine, if not a little blurry. Just a little though. He slid his hands down my arms to take my hands and my breath caught, my arms and shoulders breaking out in goosebumps at the touch. He apparently didn't notice, bringing my hands up to touch the sides of my head.

"Do it again and look at yourself in the mirror." I sighed. Why couldn't he just tell me what was wrong? I closed my eyes and started to work on them again, only opening them once I was positive that they were healed fully, because I didn't want to get stuck when he interrupted me again. In the mirror, I expected to see my eyes, same as ever, except a much darker forest green rather than the soft, mid-tone jade I normally saw. They were neither. I saw nothing but red.

Needless to say, I freaked and would have bolted out of sight of the mirror if I wasn't being held again and as soon as I lost the concentration I was channeling chakra with, my eyes became their normal medium green. The damage was done though, there was no way I'd ever see anything different in my reflection than the color of fresh blood. I dropped to the tiled floor when my knees gave out under me, trying to figure out exactly what the hell was going on. It couldn't have been Itachi. _You can't just give somebody a bloodline limit when you're visiting somebody through their subconscious through a dream, right? Dream. That's it, this is a dream. This isn't real, this is just a nightmare and the real Kakashi's going to wake me up any second now..._

"Sakura, calm down. How did this happen? They aren't constantly active, so I know that they aren't implants. Do you have any Uchiha relatives that you know of? Sakura, say something, please." I took a second to notice exactly where I was. Kneeling on a cold tiled floor with my nails digging into my scalp and Kakashi was right beside me, one arm around my shoulders and his other hand on my arm, trying to calm me. I took my right hand out of my hair and bit my well-calloused thumb, drawing blood. The slightest twinge of pain that I normally wouldn't even notice told me plainly that this wasn't a dream, this was really happening.

"I don't want this to be happening, Kakashi..." He pulled me gently so that my head rested in the curve of his neck, the hand that had been resting on my arm softly stroking my hair. I couldn't help but start to blush as the initial wave of panic died down. We were sitting on the floor in nothing more than our underwear, although I highly doubted his thoughts were even straying towards it. Everyone had something resembling moral fiber and his most likely included something about sleeping with his former student, grown up or not. That might be pretty hypocritical of me to say, because my own didn't cover sleeping with my former sensei so long as it was for some other reason than pure unadulterated lust, but then again we were two admittedly similar but still very different people.

"It's alright, Sakura. This is real, but it's not the end of the world. You've been through a lot worse, you can handle this." I nodded softly, hiccuping. Had I been crying? A knock at the door followed immediately by and insistent pounding on the same door prompted Kakashi to to stand and lift me to my feet, leading me back to the bed where he sat me down.

"Don't run away. I'll get rid of them." Them being our former teammates, of course. Those knocks were too recognizable for me to not know who had come to look for one of us. I nodded as he grabbed an undershirt and slipped it on, almost completely closing the bedroom door as he left to answer the door. I hadn't been planning on running, I felt... safe. Safer here than alone anywhere else, anyway. Straining, I could faintly hear their conversation even though they were obviously trying to be quiet.

_"Good morning, Naruto, Sasuke. What brings you two here?"_

_"Where the hell is Sakura? She's late for her shift at the hospital and the hokage herself is going to come and break down a whole lot more than your door if she doesn't turn up soon." _Sasuke was being strangely civil this morning. Wonder what's gotten into him.

_"She's still overdrawn from the... lesson she was teaching yesterday. Tsunade will know what you're talking about when you go back and tell her." _Hmm, he actually could be a really good liar when he needed to be, not that you'd know it from some of his silly excuses for tardiness.

_"Lesson? What kind of lesson?" _Both boys in unison, though their inflections and the words they emphasized differed a bit. Amazing how well the two seemed to get along with each other sometimes.

_"Couldn't say. I'll pass on the message that Tsunade wants to see her as soon as she gets up. Until then, she needs her rest."_ I smiled appreciatively and went back up to curl under the blankets. I was kind of cool, and there wasn't any point to using chakra to raise my temperature when the bed was still all nice and cozy.

_"Alright, bye Kakashi! Hey! Come see Nami if you get a chance, she's so cute! Of course that's because she looks just like my Hinata-chan..." _I had to bite my knuckle to suppress the giggle that was threatening to burst forth as Naruto's chakra abruptly disappeared.

_"...Did you need something else, Sasuke?"_ Kakashi's voice took on a markedly harder edge now that the two were alone.

_"Is she really asleep, or is she just avoiding me?"_

_"She's asleep. Not that I'd blame her if she was avoiding you, but that's a biased opinion, I'm sure." _

_"You'd help her too, wouldn't you?"_

_"Loving boyfriend, after all."_ I blushed slightly before the crash I heard made the heat drain from my face.

_"It won't be that way for long, I assure you. I'm not losing her to you." _Another crash. I didn't want to blow my cover and go out there to intervene, but I didn't want a fight started over me, especially since I knew that at least on Sasuke's part, it would get very serious.

_"Temper, temper. You lost her a long time before this even started, Sasuke." _Yet another crash. Thinking quickly, I messed my hair up and used a bit of chakra to induce a lethargic state upon myself, to make it seem as if I had just woken up. I put on my jeans and walked out of the bedroom, yawning.

"...'Kashi? What's wrong? Oh... Sasuke..." I stopped the chakra that was making me sleepy so that I could look like I was starting to wake up and rubbed my eyes before running my fingers through my slightly tangled hair. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the walls around the door were dented in at least three places and both men were staring at me.

"You slept in jeans last night?" I yawned again involuntarily, nodding. Sasuke looked mildly surprised when I elaborated.

"Kakashi's too much of a gentleman to undress an unconscious woman, even if it's for her own good." Kakashi was apparently speechless. Perhaps because he knew that I had been wide awake only a few minutes ago when he left me. Now I appeared to have been asleep for hours and I betrayed no sign of the panic I had felt earlier. I was nothing if not a good little actress, when I had to be.

"What are you doing here, Sasuke? Surely you weren't planning on trying anything with the both of us here, even with me in a low state." He frowned, glaring over at Kakashi before looking back to me in a slightly softer way.

"Early? It's past noon, Sakura." I opened my eyes wide, feigning surprise and a slight hint of panic. I had already known what time it was, but no point in dropping the act if it was working.

"Ah... I'm late... Tsunade-shishou's going to wring my neck when I get there..." Hand to my forehead, I turned to go back into the bedroom to finish getting dressed.

"Wait!" I stopped and glanced back. Sasuke had apparently tried to step towards me, but Kakashi was blocking him. The glaring match between the two was beyond unnerving.

"Hn? I have to get dressed so that I can go home and get my uniform." Leaning in the doorway and barely facing them I still couldn't help but notice the waves of anger rolling off the raven-haired jounin.

"The idiot was here too. He left to tell the hokage that you were still overtaxed from whatever lesson you were giving last night. She probably won't be expecting you for your shift, so take your time." It was difficult not to let my surprise or suspicion show on my face at the uncharacteristic kindness he was showing, but I think I did a pretty good job, smiling sleepily instead.

"That's nice of you to say, but she'll probably make me work overtime if I don't show up at all. I'll see you around, Sasuke."

"I'll walk you, if you'd like. I have to go back anyway." I shook my head, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Go on ahead. I'm sure that I don't need an escort to get to my house, it's not far. Now do me a favor and go back to being the stubborn, sadistic prick you normally are. This nice guy act is getting pretty creepy." I watched his eyes go red and I swallowed sharply, not from the pain that my shoulder was suddenly in but from the mental image of similar eyes under my own pink hair. I couldn't help but look away, biting my lip as I stepped into the bedroom and shut the door almost all the way behind me.

"I make an effort to be nice and that's the thanks I get?! You can be such a callous bitch, Sakura." I pressed my hands against the door and distinctly heard sounds that indicated he was trying to get past Kakashi, and failing miserably.

"You and 'nice' don't go together, Sasuke. However, you seem to pull off 'asshole' pretty well, so maybe you should try to stick to it. Consistency's always nice, you know." I heard a low growling on the other side of the door.

"You should be careful what you wish for, Sakura. It might just come back and bite you." I swallowed at the obviously poignant statement before growling back at him.

"Get. Lost. And pray that I don't see you before I vent some of my frustrations on something else." I heard low talking on the other side of the door, nothing I could make out clearly though and shortly afterwards, the door shut and Sasuke's chakra vanished, but not before he sent out a malicious wave of it, a warning. Slightly relieved but more than enough on edge to counteract it, I started to get dressed while I tried to figure out what was going on with my eyes.

"My apartment is going to get destroyed before the month is up at this rate." His tone sounded more exasperated than anything as he opened the bedroom door and stood in the frame, leaning on one side to watch me. I smiled slightly as I slipped on my shirt, shoes and headband.

"There's no shortage of space at my place and I can help you pay damages. Sorry about this." I tried to see if there was anything I had missed and spotted my glasses off to one side of the dresser. Picking them up, I put them on and made a quick attempt to smooth my hair before securing it back in a low ponytail with the elastic around my wrist.

"It's not your fault he's violent. Now, about your eyes..." I flinched. I couldn't help it, I just wanted to forget about them.

"What about them? This isn't the best time, really. I have to go to work." The firm glare he was giving me stopped me in my tracks as he pointed to the bed.

"Sit. Tsunade won't be expecting you for a while and I want to talk to you before you leave and start evading the topic." He looked completely serious and I sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed with my feet dangling off, my hands folded in my lap.

"I really don't want to discuss this Kakashi, I'd rather just forget about it and ignore it." He had pulled back down his mask, but still wore the sleeveless undershirt and I couldn't help but think that it looked slightly ridiculous against his boxers. Or maybe it was the other way around. _Maybe they should just both come off..._

"I know, but this isn't something you can just ignore, Sakura. Are you going to tell Tsunade?" _Or am I? _He didn't say it, but it rang loud and clear in the pointed silence after his question, and I frowned.

"Can't we keep this a secret? I don't know how to control it and it's not doing me any good, so why bring it to light when we don't need to?" He watched me intently, his own sharingan closed.

"You'll figure it out the first time you try. Besides, I'm sure that another sharingan user will be of great interest to the council and Tsunade. It's one of Konoha's defining bloodlines, and apparently, however distantly, you are a part of it." I scowled.

"I am not an Uchiha, this is... wrong. Besides, when they find out... I've heard the stories. Uchiha women are married off as soon as they can bear children, some of them as early as thirteen or fourteen! They're going to try and force it on me to revive a forsaken bloodline which has no business being revived!" My anger was short-lived however, once Kakashi came down in front of me and caught my eyes. If I hadn't been used to talking to him at eye-level in Hana, talking with him at lower than eye-level and both of his hands clasped gently above my elbows was a bit jarring. His expression was nothing short of serious, and I sealed my mouth shut. Ranting wouldn't help things.

"Key word here is 'try'. Yes, the elders are arrogant old bastards who enjoy meddling in the affairs of the village shinobi, especially as of late, with so little in the way of missions it's them and their contacts that are securing funding for the village, but relax. You'll just have to be a little bit more aggressive in pursuing your little crush and preempt the elders' decision, that's all. Like it or not though, as big as your problem with Sasuke is, this one is a lot bigger and will be more difficult to hide, especially until you learn to control it. Tsunade is not stupid, and one way or another she will find out about this. Now, if you go tell her voluntarily, she might be able to cut you a deal, grant you some time before the elders pick your intended for you, and give you a chance to end up with someone who doesn't necessarily want kids." My eyes stung and I wanted to cry. He was right of course, and I forced a weak smile, nodding. He immediately relaxed and I realized that he must have been expecting me to panic or something.

"I'll... go see Tsunade about this, I'll talk to her today since she wants to see me anyway, and went out of her way to send for me. I wasn't scheduled today, I took myself off the roster before I met you three in the training room yesterday. Though... may I ask you a favor? Two favors, actually." He nodded and I noted that his face had taken on a slightly softer expression, a hint of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. God, I wanted to kiss him so badly right now, it just wasn't fair.

"Ask me anything." _Marry me?_

"Will you go with me to see Tsunade and afterwards, since the news will be out anyway, can you train me again?" I couldn't help but blush a bit as he smiled at me. He really was gorgeous, he even had dimples.

"Sure. You had me there for a minute, I was sure you were going to ask me to marry you." I willed my face to cool back to normal after turning a bright cherry red, even though I knew he was kidding. _Well, two can play that game._

"No, I was planning on asking that after Tsunade gave her okay, but if you're offering..." My voice came out as a lazy sort of drawl, and I smirked slyly at him. He looked surprised, to say the very least, although I can't say that the expression didn't look good on him, and his grip on my arms momentarily tightened. I grinned and leaned forward, rubbing his nose tenderly with my own in an inuit kiss.

"I'm kidding, don't look so freaked out." Shrugging his hands off, I got up off the bed and started out towards the living room, flopping down onto the armchair before looking back at a very bewildered copy nin.

"You probably don't want to go see Tsunade like that, Kakashi... I'm betting she wouldn't mind the view, but..." He nodded, not looking the slightest bit fazed by my teasing little comment as he slipped on his jounin uniform without even closing the door. I kicked my feet and contemplated what I was going to say to Tsunade while he wrapped his legs and put on his sandals, but I was coming up a great big blank. On went his gloves and he came out. Maybe if I was lucky he'd do the talking. Yeah, right. I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"No vest today?" He nodded his head in the direction of the door and I noticed it resting haphazardly over the back of one of the chairs by the table. Nodding in understanding I stood, but was stopped from actually going anywhere.

"Fools rush in, Sakura. It might simplify things when we actually go see Tsunade if you can activate and deactivate them at will, not to mention that you'll have to be able to anyway if you want me to train you in their use." I thought about it, and of course he made sense. Turning to face Kakashi, I watched him to see if he would proffer any tips. When none were forthcoming, I decided that it didn't matter anyway, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do anyway.

Closing my eyes, I visualized the chakra that normally circulated through the optic nerves and as I played with it I found out why my eyes had felt off this morning. Instead of the normal one-way chakra stream that joined the eye to the rest of the system, my eyes each had two distinctly different one-way paths now. Guessing, I shut down the stream in the channel that was being flooded and redirected it to the bare and empty one. Immediately I noticed that this one absorbed more chakra than normal and upon opening my eyes again, I could only assume that I had gotten it right.

I could see everything in more than perfect detail. Every gap in the weave on the worn armchair cover, every minute flaw in the imitation wood floor, every crumb, piece of leaf and dust particle that had escaped the broom or vacuum cleaner. It was almost too much too absorb all at once, especially once my attention returned to Kakashi and I was entranced. I had never thought the laid-back man moved that much, but that could be because I hadn't ever seen him like this before. It was odd, seeing every movement, every breath so perfectly that the next filled itself in perfectly in my mind just before it happened. I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away, watching the pulse on the side of his neck through his undershirt until he lifted my chin to break my gaze and I found myself watching the minute movements in his eyes and the strands of hair falling down over his open sharingan.

"Two." He let go of me and I continued to let my gaze wander, with it flickering back to him every time he moved. With vision like this, how the hell had I ever managed to hit any of those three, ever? Was I really that fast?

"Two what?" Looking down at my black shoes, I found that I could even see the equally black threads holding the canvas upper together and could see exactly ten places on the left shoe alone where the threads were rent and broken.

"Two tomoe. It means that they're freshly active and not fully developed yet. You remember when Sasuke's activated for the first time in the land of Waves? He only had two then too. Odd though, I've never heard of them starting so late, the latest I've ever heard are at thirteen or fourteen. You must be pretty far removed from the main bloodline, Sakura." I shrugged, only half paying attention while I watched in fascination at the spider spinning her web in the corner of the living room, by the bookcase.

"My bodily age is only sixteen or seventeen, if that helps any." My gaze darted to him as he looked at me in confusion, and I noticed that I could see an almost perfect outline of his face through the thin skin-hugging fabric of his mask. I didn't give him time to ask questions before I elaborated though. "With all the time I spent in henge my body didn't grow properly. I have the brains of an adult and the body of a teenager. Tsunade tried to warn me about the dangers of staying under jutsu so long, but Jiraiya forgot to pass on the message."

"I see. Well, I don't know if that matters or not, but Tsunade might or there might be some old records in the Uchiha complex that address it. Okay, lets go, but turn those off first, we don't want to freak out everyone we come across on the way there." Turning the off was much easier, now that I knew what triggered them and I was rewarded with my normal eyesight back, as well as the beginnings of a chakra exhaustion headache. I hadn't had enough sleep last night to fully recover, and my body was unused to the demands that came with the unique weapons I had been provided with. Once I did get used to it however, and the worst of the anxieties associated with them had passed, I couldn't help but think that this might be a good thing. Maybe. I wasn't sure yet.

"Alright, let's go!" I tried to psyche myself up as much as I could to face what would be an inevitably tense meeting with the hokage. We started towards the tower, where Tsunade had likely gone back to, if she had even actually been at the hospital when she summoned me. She normally only went there during the day if there was a specific reason, and between my track record and the fact that I had given advance warning of the likelihood of my absence, I doubted that it would be reason enough to keep her there.

It took far longer to reach the tower than it should have, but I blame that wholeheartedly on the multitude of interruptions in the form of chattering shinobi that awaited us along the way. The first was Naruto, sitting at the counter at Ichiraku's as Ayame gushed about how cute the little blanketed bundle he was carrying was. When he spotted us, he yelled and practically begged us to go eat with him and once he did, Ayame took notice, her face falling from the cheerful smile she had been wearing to a more withdrawn, forced smile. You did not need to be a shinobi to be able to tell that the young woman was not very happy to see us.

I didn't want to stay very much longer than the time it took to go and snuggle up to Nami for a few minutes, and upon telling Naruto our reason for leaving, he just laughed and told us to stay. Specifically, he said that after hearing that I was still in bed recuperating, Tsunade looked really guilty and said she'd call me back another day, when I was feeling better. Feeling sort of guilty for not really wanting to stay, I just pressed to him that I really needed to go see Tsunade. He looked disappointed, but was a pretty good sport about it. Honestly, he was probably just looking for me to pay him back and foot the bill for the six bowls of ramen he had apparently devoured in the short time between being at the apartment, going to see Tsunade, going to go get Nami and arriving at the ramen stand. _How the hell can he eat that fast, or that much? I just don't understand._

Near the academy we were stopped by Iruka-sensei and Kurenai-sempai playing with a young boy, one who couldn't have been older than five, maybe just about six. Looking at him, I wondered if Kurenai had been pregnant when I left, because the kid was a dead-ringer for Asuma-sempei, except for those bright crimson eyes peeking out from under his straight black mop of hair. We played catch-up a little bit, well, Iruka-sensei and I did, I hadn't really known Kurenai well enough to have much to say to her in a more personal vein than a passing 'hello'. I gave them the PG version of my travels, which left them incredibly abbreviated, but nobody needed to know anything more than the mild stuff anyway. I'd tell Kakashi if he asked, or maybe Tsunade. Jiraiya already knew most of it, barring the stuff concerning any dealings with missing-nin and anyone other than those three... well, they really just didn't need to know.

They eventually introduced me to the little boy, who was staring shyly at me and Kakashi from behind Kurenai's legs, making quite the cute little picture. Sarutobi Asuma. Well, that answered my question of whether or not she had been pregnant when I left, because I knew for a fact that Asuma had died while I was stuck in prison in Mist. I couldn't help the small laugh I let out when the boy finally came out from behind his mother's legs and spoke, because the only thing he asked me was if my hair was really pink for real. I smacked Kakashi for the chuckle that erupted from him, attracting a couple of very curious glances from Iruka and Kurenai, although they didn't ask, especially after Kakashi retaliated against the strike with pulling me into a hug and kissing me on the top of the head. Probably blushing enough to match my own hair, I missed the chance to answer when Kakashi did it for me before dragging me off in the direction of the tower with an overly cheerful farewell. I didn't ask what had come over him and he didn't volunteer the information, so we continued towards the tower in a comfortable silence, at least for a while.

Of course the worst and most time consuming interruption came when we passed in front of Ino's shop and she happened to catch sight of me, dragging Temari outside with her to talk to me. My annoyance and admission that I was on my way to see the hokage wasn't enough to dissuade them one little bit and I was immediately buried under the cascades of questions they aimed at me, from where I had taken off to yesterday to when we were going to finish shopping.

When I finally got a word in, I asked if they had brought the shopping bags I had left when I was summoned back to my house. Unfortunately, this sent the two into a new tirade of questions about where I had spent the night, because it obviously wasn't in my bed, because that's where they had left everything. Ten minutes later, when Ino decided that her motormouth needed a rest, I explained as calmly and vaguely as I could that Tsunade stuck me with teaching a few jounin a complicated jutsu and I had passed out from chakra exhaustion. Ino started back in with how she had worked last night and knew that I hadn't been in the hospital, so stop lying or else, and I had to stop myself from throttling her.

She eventually let me finish, explaining that Kakashi had let me crash there for the night and her face fell phenomenally, while Temari looked between me and Kakashi and her smirk said quite plainly that she caught a different meaning than Ino had. Eventually, probably when he sensed that I was this close to murdering one of them, Kakashi stopped the pair of blonds from grilling me anymore by saying that we were late and hooking a finger through the ring on my collar, pulling me away from them.

Thankfully, Ino and Temari were the last people we knew who said anything to us on the way to the tower. Ino had given me a headache, or rather just made the existing one worse, flaring it up to a just barely tolerable level. Kakashi had let go of my collar once we were out of sight of the two, and the feather light trail his fingers had traced down my arm before retreating back to his pocket made me shiver slightly, but definitely not in a bad way. Even the little touches that didn't have any meaning to them, I liked. He had an odd way of making me feel special to him and even though it was just an act, I couldn't help blushing sometimes, like then.

When we finally got to the tower, Shizune was the one to greet us and she looked especially surprised as she notified Tsunade that she had visitors. After a very gruff and extremely brief conversation between the two, Shizune came out of the office laden with a mountain of presumably unfinished paperwork and told us rather sharply that Tsunade was waiting for me. Me specifically, though that didn't stop Kakashi from following me, thankfully. Apprehensive, I took a position in front of Tsunade's desk and waited patiently while Kakashi fell in beside me, calm and collected as ever. As Tsunade watched me in curiosity and possibly concern, I found myself st a loss for what exactly I was supposed to be saying. Neither of the other two in the office were exactly helping either, with Tsunade glaring as Kakashi rested a hand on my shoulder, close enough to my neck to make me blush again.

"Go ahead, Sakura." Tsunade's glare only got worse as Kakashi's hand lingered on my shoulder, but she cut me off just as I was about to start rambling and hope for the best.

"She can wait a minute, Kakashi. I have business of my own to address with her, and unfortunately it takes precedent. Whether she wants you present for this conversation or not I'm not sure, as it will likely be of a very personal nature." Her gaze remained fixed on my shoulder burning a hole in Kakashi's hand, but he didn't move it, even though he most likely noticed. Taking the hint from his boldness I relaxed, putting my own hands in my pockets and calming my nerves enough to regain my normal demeanor.

"I'm sure there's not much you can tell me that I wouldn't tell him anyway, so there's not really any point to kicking him out, is there? That is, if you don't mind, Shishou." That, and the moral support was encouraging. Looking surprised for a moment, she nodded and gestured to two pages that lay side by side on her oddly bare desk.

"Alright, first thing's first. Look at these pages and point out the differences." I stepped close enough to read them clearly and frowned. DNA profiles for what were apparently two different people, but they were still closely related as there were only a few spots that were different between the two. I pointed these out and was rewarded with a nod from the older blond. In a slightly overdramatic gesture she performed a seal to dispel a camouflage jutsu, and the names of the shinobi the profiles belonged to reappeared where they were supposed to be. I felt myself turn white as I read the names, or rather, name that adorned the pages, realization washing over me in a cold wave that left me shaking slightly. Haruno Sakura, Age 14 and Haruno Sakura, Age 21. These were the analyses of the blood tests I took at gaining chuunin and jounin rank.

"Why are they different, Sakura?" It was clearly a rhetorical question, I realized, as she took three files that she had been hiding on her lap and placed them all side by side on the desk, opening each to the most recent DNA profile within them. I must have turned even whiter upon reading the names on the files. Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke.

"Take a look and tell me what you notice." Not even half a glance at each and I already knew what she was getting at, and I stepped backwards to fall back in line with Kakashi.

"You already know what I came here for then, so I may as well show you and get it out of the way." I turned on the sharingan and tried my hardest to keep my wandering attention on the blond in front of me. Looking only mildly surprised, she closed the files and placed them neatly in a pile before gathering the two loose sheets up and placing them in another file off to the side.

"I see you already knew about this. Good, this saves me a lot of trouble. Now, how did this happen?" Honestly now, I had no clue. I didn't have the genes when I was fourteen and your genetic makeup doesn't just change on a whim, so it eliminated the 'distant relation' theory.

"Beats me. If Kakashi hadn't noticed them when I woke up this morning, I'd still have no clue about them." Apparently this answer didn't satisfy her and with my heightened vision I could see the vein throbbing in her temple. She leaned forward on the desk with her hand to her forehead and I edged slightly closer to the silent man beside me. I was actually getting tired again, and starting to feel slightly sick, so I turned off my eyes, closing them to fight off the nausea slightly.

"Fabulous, you're sleeping with him too. No wonder Sasuke's got a stick shoved up his ass anymore." This was said quietly, under her breath, but I heard it anyway before she decided to continue, this time actually talking to me. "Sakura, your genes don't spontaneously mutate without a reason. Did something happen, with Itachi, maybe? Sasuke mentioned when he came back that you came on to the battlefield in his brother's company without any visible tether or restrictions." I shook my head slightly, eyes still tightly shut.

"I don't think so, Shishou. Not that I remember, anyway." I cracked an eye to look at her and at least make an effort to be polite and found her sitting straight up, staring at me.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" I nodded.

"Just a little tired and a bit sick. Haven't eaten in a while and I might have overdone it with my chakra." She narrowed her eyes at me, motioning for me to go stand beside her. Frowning, I did so without objection and she proceeded to check me over. Her chakra was cold and I felt myself shiver as she decided to fully diagnose me, talking as she did so.

"Alright, if you say you don't know, I'll have to assume the secret died with Itachi. Care to explain why you were in his company willingly?" I coughed gently into my fist.

"I was using him as a hostage to find Sasuke." She raised an eyebrow at me, but I didn't want to elaborate on it and she seemed to sense that.

"You'll have to tell me about that sometime, although right now isn't the best time for war stories and anecdotes. I got the results of your blood test back early yesterday morning, I just was a bit caught up in the events of yesterday that I didn't have much of a chance to bring it up to you. As you probably know though, the results of these tests make it to the elders' eyes as fast as they do mine. Unfortunately, they noticed the same thing I did and have brought it to my attention, repeatedly, that having the genes means that in all likelihood, your children will too." I cringed involuntarily, knowing exactly where this was going.

"They are leaning towards arranging that you marry and cutting off your access to birth control, but at the moment they are divided between marrying you to Sasuke, to guarantee that your kids have the sharingan and to strengthen the bloodline again, or marrying you into another clan and increasing the numbers of kids between you two." I didn't say anything, nor did I let my facial expression give away my feelings regarding the matter, but my anger was barely contained. I had been right to expect this, although since I had lost the chance to preempt Tsunade, I might have lost any choice I might have had.

"I, however, don't condone making the choice for a grown woman. I can only hold off the elders' decision so long though, so if you don't wish to be bound to Sasuke, Kiba or Shino, I suggest you get your ass in gear and decide who you do want to get hitched with. Although, from what Jiraiya's told me of your interests, it looks like you've got things pretty much covered." I had zoned out a bit and didn't realize what she had said until it was too late to stop her. Beet red, a quick glance at Kakashi revealed a raised eyebrow and a smirk, causing me to go even redder. Damn it, the game was up, he knew.

"No better match for one porn addict than another, after all. Kakashi, how long have those old vultures been trying to set you up? Fifteen years now? They'll be happy, two birds with one stone. Do not think I support this relationship, you two, because I don't. Unfortunately, you're both consenting adults and I can't say a thing about it. I might have been able to, if you hadn't left the village for so long Sakura, but be thankful you did, or this would never happen under my watch." Okay, that was what she meant. Good thing too, otherwise Jiraiya would have ended up a broken and bruised occupant of Konoha's esteemed medical facilities while he wrote Icha Icha Tactics volume 27. Although then it would likely contain a lot of naughty nurse scenes. Schoolgirls seducing their teachers were actually my favorite, for obvious reasons, but nurses and their patients or doctors were my second favorite, also for obvious reasons. Maybe I should get him sent there anyway...

"Kind of funny, we just started dating, almost nobody even knows yet and we're already being married?" His expression was once again unreadable, as it usually was in public, and so was his voice. He just sounded bored. I couldn't tell if he was joking or if the idea was truly unappealing to him and my heart sank at the possibility of the latter. I knew I wasn't perfect. My cooking wasn't the best and my ninjutsu was one of my weakest points, forget that I wasn't a really girly girl. But... maybe that was the problem? I had never really been a girly girl though. Sure I tried, way back when I was twelve or thirteen, but I hadn't ever really felt right like that. The girl he liked... was she like Hinata? A quiet, motherly woman with a killer body and perfect cooking skills? I'd never be that girl, unfortunately, but it's not like I never realized that I was doomed to heartbreak from the start.

"Tsunade-shishou, how much time can you guarantee me before I have to make a choice?" I was a woman, and thus would not be allowed to evade the decision for fifteen years as Kakashi apparently had. Tsunade's hazel eyes were fixed on me in barely disguised pity and I didn't like it. Even Kakashi himself had dropped the uncaring facade to show concern, for a moment. Tsunade drew her hands away from me, apparently finished, and I took a step away from her, trying to stay upright as the floor started to spin.

"Well, I already have three weddings to do this month, so you have at least until the end of it because I don't want to be adding a fourth to an already ridiculous list. That's as long as I can promise you for now though. Have you been feeling sick a lot lately?" I shook my head as I thought. A month, not even actually, to figure out how Kakashi felt and act appropriately. This could get tricky, especially with that other woman in the picture. It probably wasn't Anko, he hadn't acted specially towards the brunette, but again it could be good acting. I hadn't asked if she was a civilian or not, but it likely wasn't Ayame, or he wouldn't have acted so affectionately at the ramen stand yesterday. Who was it, anyway?

"Not really, no more than normal anyway."

"Although that could be relatively deceiving, as she seems to overextend herself almost as a habit." I stuck my tongue out at Kakashi, who smirked smugly back at me. It was not a habit, things just happened to work out that way. Tsunade didn't look surprised in the slightest.

"Any weird mood swings, odd cravings, are you feeling abnormally tired or hungry?" I frowned pointedly as warning bells started to go off in my head.

"I am not pregnant, Shishou." She smirked, but I was too pink to even think about looking up at Kakashi.

"I see you've been busy, if that's the first thing you're assuming I thought. I know you're not pregnant, Sakura, so settle down and just answer the question." Nope, definitely not looking at Kakashi right now, although I imagine he was probably laughing at my expense. In his mind, of course. He wouldn't laugh out loud in public. Giggle, yes. Laugh, no.

"I don't know... definitely no to the mood swings and cravings, and I don't think I've been eating more than normal, but abnormally tired? Maybe, although I'm mostly blaming that on selective insomnia and a recent 'habit' of exhausting my chakra." Tsunade didn't look very happy and venturing a short glance at Kakashi showed that he had noticed this as much as I did. Not a good sign, that's for sure.

"Sakura, I want you to take it easy for a couple of days and report back to me for another formal physical. I noticed it during the last exam I gave you, but it seems to have grown exponentially worse in the intervening week. Kakashi, consider this a mission, you're not to let her out of your sight until she reports back to me. 9 am Wednesday morning, Sakura, and don't you dare even think about being late or so help me I'll schedule you for 6 months straight of midnight shifts in the hospital with no possible chance for a mission." Kakashi nodded and I couldn't help but feel the bubble of panic that started to rise, even though I didn't particularly care about the midnight shifts. I was pretty good at switching back and forth from nocturnal creature to a day crawler just like everybody else.

"Shishou, what's wrong? Why do I suddenly need a babysitter?" Tsunade's eyebrows furrowed as she rubbed her temple. I went a take a step towards her, but one glance stopped me mid-step.

"It's just the aftermath of being in henge for too long, your body's trying to catch up, so to speak. I noticed it a bit a week ago, but apparently in the meantime your body's started to work even harder to make up for lost time. If it hasn't shown yet, the inevitable fatigue, increased appetite and moodiness will probably start soon, and there's a possibility of you having... fits, like Naruto had."

"Naruto?" She looked at me in annoyance that I had interrupted her before continuing.

"I'm sure your... boyfriend over there can tell you the story, or if you ask Jiraiya or Naruto and Hinata, they'll tell you. As for these fits, if they strike you'll know it and you'll need medical attention immediately to slow down your body's growth to a more or less comfortable rate. It's just a precaution to keep somebody with you, although you should be glad. More time to spend together without the possibility of me splitting you up for missions. Now, we can finish this discussion when I see you next. For now, I prescribe a good long soak at the hot springs followed by a nutritious meal. Please, no ramen until you come back, eat properly. I would say no training either, because your body will tire quickly... even quicker if you're not used to using your new... assets." I nodded and she waved me off in the direction of the door with a warm, yet restrained smile. Apparently we were once again on good standing with each other, something I was grateful for. Catching that paperweight that she had thrown at me yesterday had nearly broken bones, even with a chakra layer padding the impact. I could still see the bruise, although it wasn't enough of a bother to be worth healing. My former mentor really did have one hell of a temper and the strength to back it up, but at least that didn't mean she had no compassion, she was the best medic in the world, after all.

"Coming, Sakura?" Kakashi was standing by the door, calm as ever while he waited for me. Quickly, I dove forward and gave the busty blond a hug in thanks, startling her as I said goodbye before dashing out the office door to follow Kakashi. Shizune stopped me outside the office.

"Ah... hey, Sakura...It's not really like me to gossip or anything, but... is it true that you two are... together?" Kakashi snickered softly and I didn't even get a chance to reply.

"Who bet on me?" Utterly bewildered, I witnessed Shizune's face go slightly pink before she looked away from us.

"Ah... Shikamaru-kun..." Now I was really confused.

"And how much did he win?" Shizune's eyes widened.

"So it is true then... Well... needless to say, it was a lot... from me in particular it's three B-rank missions worth of salary... I bet on Genma..." It took all the control I could muster not to let my temper take control, as they were obviously talking about something to do with me and betting, and that never spelled anything good.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Kakashi gave the cute little eye crease before ruffling my hair and Shizune looked at me like you'd look at a pile of volatile exploding tags.

"There was a bet going on around your friends about who you'd end up dating when you came back. Although I have to say after the stakes being upped over and over for the better part of five years, three B-rank missions worth isn't very much, Shizune." She turned even redder and started to back away from me as I absorbed this information.

"People were betting on my love life? I'm so flattered. Please tell me who was involved in this so that I can make a list of who I'm never ever treating again." My voice and face were completely deadpan, an attempt to avoid my temper that was only barely working.

"I'd say if that's what your planning as retribution you'll never be able to take another shift in this hospital again..." My jaw dropped.

"You've got to be kidding me. What the hell would possess people to bet on my romantic endeavors, huh?" Kakashi scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, while Shizune remained silent.

"Hey, things could be worse. I didn't make a bet and Naruto, Sai and Yamato didn't either, if that helps. " Shizune pouted and sort of glared at Kakashi.

"You four only didn't bet because you said any guy who so much as looked at her would be ending up in the hospital, Kakashi. You know, I thought that was just her teammates being overprotective, but I have to wonder..." We both glared at her with equal intensity and she backed up a step under it, while my stomach fluttered a bit. Kakashi being protective over me? Now that was cute.

"Do you honestly think Kakashi would have any interest in a fifteen year old, Shizune? Give me a break. He reads porn, but he's not a pervert." Shizune and Kakashi both raised eyebrows at me, and I turned pink.

"Funny how you're defending Kakashi's tastes and not yours, Sakura." I crossed my arms and glared back at her.

"Tell me you never had a crush on one of your male teachers as a kid and I'll call you a liar, Shizune." She turned red and I stuck my tongue out. Kakashi was looking at me blankly and I turned a little more pink.

"Oh, shut up. You only know that because Tsunade has a big mouth when she's drunk." I snorted, barely realizing that we were completely cutting Kakashi out at this point.

"No, I know because just about every girl has a crush on an authority figure when they're young, I just happened to know who yours was, so ha." She turned away and sat down at her desk in a huff, almost squishing Tonton, who was grunting wildly.

"Don't you dare say anything, Sakura, or the whole town finds out that you had a crush on Iruka when you were eight." I rolled my eyes.

"My best friend was Ino, for crying out loud, you think the entire town doesn't already know? I'm not a gossip, Shizune, I'm not going to tell anyone, although I doubt you have to worry about me too much. Tsunade's lips are looser when she's drunk than Ino's on a good gossip day. I'm surprised I'm the only one who knows, although I guess I'm probably not, huh?" She was starting to get really rattled now.

"You should go, I have paperwork to attend to, Sakura. Have fun and tell Shikamaru if you see him that he won, the bet's over." Oh yeah, Shikamaru won. Why would he bet on Kakashi?

"Sure thing. See you later, Shizune. Sorry about you losing, but I wouldn't date Genma if he were the last guy on earth. He's too much like Jiraiya for my tastes. Good guys to be friends with though, once they know not to hit on you." She waved a hand at me as we left, still looking slightly disgruntled, whether at her loss or our little argument I wasn't sure. Neither Kakashi nor I said a word until we had left the tower, where I took Tsunade's suggestion seriously and veered off of my beaten path onto one less traveled, this one leading to the resident hot springs. I had rarely ever visited them before I left, but I had started to appreciate them the longer I was gone and the harder I trained, for their therapeutic, relaxing atmospheres. Hot springs actually made for a pretty good quick fix for chakra exhaustion as well as soothing sore muscles, something Jiraiya had taught me early on. That obviously wasn't the only reason we visited, but a tiger won't change his stripes just because he has a cub to look after.

You're actually going to the springs? You do know that Jiraiya's in town, right?" I shrugged indifferently at the man keeping pace with me and looking at me in obvious disapproval.

"Ask me if I care. You forget, I know how to deal with men like Jiraiya, even if my experience with the rest of the male population is fairly limited." He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me and I stuck my tongue out at him. The springs weren't very far from the tower, on a large expanse of land at the edge of the village. Between the time of day and the already sweltering heat, the springs were empty, which was a very good thing. It meant that Jiraiya was likely conducting his research hiding on one of the watery training grounds, hoping to catch young kunoichi trying to escape the heat of the day while they were unaware. As I went to enter, I was pulled back.

"Hold on a second... Okay, now we can go." I took a look back at him and was once again making eye contact with him without raising my head.

"You're coming in with me?" He looked exactly like he had in Hana, right down to the wavy shock of silver hair that fell down his back and was slightly longer on his left, and the voice that was a huskier, feminine version of his normal voice. Still sexy, though. He didn't look embarrassed in the slightest as he gave me a cute smile and eye crinkle before taking my arm and pulling me along with him.

"Tsunade's orders, remember? Besides, it's not like I haven't seen you naked before anyway." _Well yeah, but I wasn't like I was planning on giving you any more free shows, either. _He didn't let go until we had gotten to the change rooms, where he almost promptly started to remove his clothes. I entered what must have been close to a full body blush as I turned my back on him and started to do the same, folding up my clothes and placing them in one of the provided baskets for the purpose. He did the same, and I must have turned several shades redder as I took a moment to realize that his boxers and my panties were almost exactly the same shade of orange. Wrapping my towel firmly around myself, I took a peek out into the spring from the change room doors. Kakashi wasn't nearly so cautious, slipping past me and into the water with little hesitation. Rolling my eyes, I performed a quick set of seals and a thick fog rolled over the water as I walked out, obscuring me from the sight of any possible voyeurs while I ditched my towel and slid under the surface of the steaming hot water. Once I was in over my chest, I released the jutsu and Kakashi became visible to me, one eyebrow raised in amusement. I smiled sweetly, possibly a little overly so.

"Amazing, the uses for some jutsu, ne?"

"Considering that that one is supposed to be used for emergency cover in difficult situations, yes. I can't believe you'd use such a high level jutsu when you're already tired just to avoid some prying eyes." I started to laugh, despite my headache. He hadn't identified the jutsu properly, and I couldn't fully believe that I had pulled a fast one on him.

"High level? That was C-rank at best, and barely cost me anything chakra-wise. If I remember properly, it was you who first told me I was a genjutsu type, and I've learned that it is an easy thing to put to good use." The look on his face was priceless as he realized that he had been duped by such a low-level technique and I relaxed a little further into the hot water, a smug smile on my face.

My body hadn't been under so much stress in quite a long time, so yesterday was absolute murder on the parts of it that my students had concentrated on. It hadn't been that bad when I woke up, but that was a common effect of the jutsu too, it delayed the long term effects of the pain for a while, usually enough so that the victim was feeling it again just as he or she entered their next session, compounding the effects of the jutsu. It may have been a bit mean of me to think so, but here's hoping it really hit Anko hard. The counter wasn't a difficult thing to grasp, but I know she was messing up on purpose, just to make me mad and keep expending chakra. Ibiki's chakra control was just short of horrible but he picked everything up in a fraction of the time Anko had, and Kakashi... well, I had given him a lot more leeway when it came to exploring my memory, so it's not really a surprise that he took a little bit longer, out of curiosity though, not because he didn't catch on quickly.

"Sakura, do you really not know how this happened, or did you not tell Tsunade because she'd frown upon your interactions with Itachi?" The smile faded from my face and I just stared at the cloudy water lapping at the tops of my breasts. I remembered the dream and Itachi's words, but was this what he meant by giving me a gift? Had he somehow done this before, but it was only now that they were activating? Maybe they were activating because of the dream, like the way time release medications work...

"I really don't know, Kakashi. Besides, if it was truly that important, I'd come clean with Tsunade concerning my time with him, even at the risk of a lifetime in the slammer, if not getting the death penalty." A gift, in apology for forcing me to make an impossible decision. That's what he had said, but what kind of a gift was this, such a powerful weapon? One that put me on even ground with his brother for sure, but why? Surely he didn't have any reason at the time to show favoritism towards me over his baby brother, especially after just admitting that he had once been unable to kill him, even after being ordered to...

"Sakura, what were you to each other, really?" My head snapped up to stare at him in confusion, only for my gaze to be met with an unreadable, guarded one, his sharingan trained on me to discern any untruths I might have tried to tell him. What kind of question was that though, and why was he asking me? I expected something like this from Sasuke, but Kakashi?

"I don't understand what you mean. I've already told you, I respected and loved him like a brother, or a valued friend. As for what I was to him, I have no clue. He said that I interested him, but until he was bleeding out in my arms it never got any more personal than that. I suppose... more than anything I was probably a nuisance, bothering him to train me every time we made camp and all." His expression changed minutely to one that conveyed skepticism and my chest tightened. What would make him believe any different? It's not like I had been making it a habit to lie to him, quite the opposite actually. Raising my feet up onto the flat stone that served as a bench under the perimeter of the water, I wrapped my arms around my knees, now poking above the surface, and rested my head sideways on them facing away from the only other occupant of the spring.

"You can't tell me that you didn't notice anything in his face while he was dying, Sakura, even I saw it. You don't look that way at someone you think of as a little sister, or a nuisance." I closed my eyes, trying to remember what he might have seen, but I couldn't.

"Sure I noticed something, but it wasn't what you seem to think it was. He was dying, Kakashi, bleeding out, and I was the only one who cared. I was the only one there to listen to him, who would know what he had done and forgive him for it. He'd been pushing everyone away for years, so how do you think he felt knowing that he wasn't alone, that there was someone who wasn't indifferent and didn't openly hate him there to shed tears for him?" That night had been the last time I had really, truly cried. I hadn't cried when Jiraiya had brought me the message from Tsunade that my mother had been killed in action at my father's hands, even though I wanted to.

I hadn't cried when, two months after that, I met Haruno Keiji in an old, dimly lit tavern somewhere near the border of River Country, scarred from head to toe and looking thoroughly unlike the man I remembered as my father. If it hadn't been for the ridiculous hair color I shared with him, I wouldn't have recognized him at all before he drew a kunai and tried to slit my throat for the reward associated with my death in some of the closer hidden villages, those allied with Mist and Grass. By then, I was a wanted woman as Mayu too, but I was also better able to hold my own against the occasional rogue nin or bandit after a fat paycheck. My own father, however, was a bit more difficult... but I survived, obviously. No, I hadn't cried for him either, although I was never able to wash his blood off of my hands, spiritually speaking.

"How long did you stay in his company, Sakura? I hate to tell you this, but the way he looked at you was a little bit more than just friendly, or grateful, no matter what you seem to think." I sighed and watched the water ripple as my breath ricocheted off of it.

"I traveled with him for a few months, eight or so, I think. Not nearly long enough, in my opinion, and before you decide to say anything about it, listen to me very closely. I am a very single-minded woman when it comes to my ideas for love. Itachi fell firmly into the 'platonic' category, right alongside Naruto or Jiraiya. Whether or not it was the same for him, I don't know, nor does it matter now. Please, for the sake of respecting the dead, just drop it." The nausea and headache had nearly completely faded now, but I knew that it was only a temporary solution. I hadn't eaten anything since the late lunch I had shared with the girls yesterday at one of the new cafes Ino had wanted to check out. That had been nearly twenty-four hours ago and now my stomach was gnawing away the rest of my insides in hunger.

"Sakura! He-ey!" I had been about to stand and leave, but the high-pitched, girly voice calling my name made me groan in realization and want to hide. A very familiar body slid into the spring next to me before dragging another, smaller one in and sitting her down, causing me to do a double-take. Two sets of bright cerulean eyes, two sets of sunflower blond pigtails, one set of whiskers.

"Naruto... Yukiko? To what do I owe the pleasure?" The resemblance between the two was truly uncanny, if you ignored the nearly panicked look on the smaller girl's face as she was shoved towards me. Kakashi's gaze passed between the two for a brief moment before he scowled slightly at the interruption. Likely enough, he had more questions that would be left unasked now, and inwardly I praised Naruto's impeccable timing.

"Yuki-chan here needs a bit of extra training for her chuunin exams and I wanted to know if you'd help." I took a look at the small girl before looking back at her sensei, who was apparently trying to keep her from running away.

"Why me, Naruto? She's so much like you it's not even remotely funny, I'm sure you're doing a great job training her without my help." I could tell from here that she was very obviously a ninjutsu type, her massive amounts of chakra surprising for someone her size, though nowhere near Naruto's level and I already knew that she normally acted like her sensei too, the 'old hag' comment still not forgotten.

"She's my medic, I can't help her in that field." _Oh, of course._ I took a look at the girl again, who was now sneaking nervous glances at Kakashi, who was still glaring at the pair of blonds who had interrupted us.

"Hey, short stuff, show me what you can do." I unwrapped my bandaged left hand, which I had been careful not to get wet and hadn't rebandaged after the nailbeds had bled this morning. Holding my hand out to her, I already knew that there wasn't much to be done, because fingernails couldn't be made to grow back, it takes time, but if she could see what could be done, she was already chuunin level anyway.

"What the hell did you do to your hand, old ha- er... Haruno-sempai..." I raised an eyebrow at her sudden change of attitude as she took my hand. Naruto had probably told her to be nice, in hopes that I might be persuaded into helping train her. As she ran her chakra into my fingertips, I suppressed a smirk, keeping my face relatively neutral even through my amusement. Wind-type. This girl could be his sister, at least if I didn't already know better. She was fairly talented though, even if her control wasn't quite perfect and her element wasn't naturally suited for her chosen profession. She was clearly unsure of what to do, as there was no actual cut or bruise, nor was I currently bleeding, and let go of my hand after numbing the nerve endings a bit, looking apologetic.

"I'm not sure what you meant for me to do, sempai..." I just smiled at her.

"There's nothing to be done, otherwise I would have done it by now, these wounds are several days old already. It's recognizing that nothing could be done that I wanted to see from you. Good job with the numbing, though it wasn't strictly necessary." Naruto tweaked one of the younger girl's pigtails and she blushed, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"So, will you train me then?" Naruto-sensei says that you're the best, right beside Tsunade-sama!" I nodded and she pumped her fist in victory.

"Tsunade-shishou taught me nearly everything that I know about being a medic, but I think Shizune's probably still worlds better at it than I am." Her eyes lit up at the mention of the brunette kunoichi.

"Shizune-sempai's the reason I became a medic, she's so pretty and smart and she saved me from drowning when I was still back in the academy, I want to be just like her!" I smiled, thinking to myself that there was no way this kid was ever going to be another Shizune. _You're just a little too loud for that, kid. _I didn't say what I was thinking though, instead just flicking at one of her dangling pigtails where it met the water of the spring.

"I have to warn you though, I haven't had a single trainer go easy on me in years, so I don't know how to do it for my own students." She looked back and forth between Naruto and I with an apprehensive sort of expression, clearly unsure of what her teacher had done when he suggested that I be the one to train her.

"You've never had any of your senseis go easy on you? Not even when you were a genin?" I stuck my tongue out, looking right past her at Kakashi.

"No, I'd say my genin sensei was the only one who went easy on me. Unless you consider almost being eaten by a giant toad, or smashed through a stone wall, or slammed through three feet of solid ice from twenty feet in the air into below zero seawater being went easy on. If that's the case, then hey, I know how to do that." The terror on her face was almost comical, and Naruto shoved me playfully while Kakashi just looked thoughtful.

"Don't tease her like that, you weren't really trained like that." I raised an eyebrow at the blond.

"How would you know? Jiraiya didn't baby me when I went to him for training, and neither did Tsunade. All of that did happen, Naruto, I promise." His eyes widened.

"So who sent you through the ice then?" _Itachi._

"You know, I don't quite recall, but I do remember that it was only a little over a year ago..." Kakashi scowled. "Maybe Jiraiya... or one of the girls in Hana. I'll have to get back to you on that one. Anyway, no worries Yuki-chan, I won't train you like I was trained. I'm not here to train your fighting skills, I'm here to train your medical skills." She smiled slightly, still looking skeptical, at least until I smiled again, then she brightened up.

"We can start today if you have the time, sempai!" I shook my head and her face fell slightly.

"Stop calling me that please, Sakura's just fine. I'm being forced to take it easy for a couple of days, so when the hokage gives me the okay, we'll start training, okay?" She nodded in understanding, but my comment drew Naruto's attention from Kakashi, with whom he had been carrying on an animated and thoroughly one-sided conversation.

"Why's Baa-chan making you take time off? Are you sick, or did the bastard hurt you too badly during training?" I shook my head and his look of concern partially dissipated.

"My body's just trying to catch up after so long in henge and she's even appointed somebody to keep an eye on me." Naruto burst out laughing, causing Yuki-chan to jump slightly and wade over closer to me.

"Ah, okay! That happened to me too, after ero-sennin put a seal on me and I was stuck in my sexy jutsu for three months! It's not bad, catching up, but you get really horny a lot. Baa-chan says it's just your hormones catching up too." Yuki-chan turned a bright shade of cherry-red and hid her face in her hands, mimicking almost exactly my own gesture of embarrassment.

"Naruto, how can you talk like that in front of your student? How old is she, twelve? Thirteen?" Naruto shook his head, apparently oblivious to our combined embarrassment, while Kakashi, who had been listening, looked way more amused than he should at our situation.

"Yuki-chan's turning sixteen in a few months! Although I guess she still does look pretty young, doesn't she? She's the oldest on my team though, the other two are both thirteen." All at once, as she turned and punched Naruto, I felt for the small girl.

"Both of you, avert your eyes. Yuki-chan, come on, let's go get dressed, alright?" Under my glare the two transformed men looked away as I performed the foggy jutsu again and the two of us got out of the water, wrapping our towels around ourselves before we walked leisurely back to the change rooms. Yuki was the first to speak as I let go of the jutsu and we dried off.

"Thank you, Sakura-san. Naruto-sensei may not mean it, but he can be pretty mean sometimes." I smiled softly as she donned simple white undergarments and a plain, powder-blue sleeveless dress with a button up front, the filmy material clinging to her damp skin. Sighing, she patted her chest lightly, looking dejected.

"Just Sakura please. About Naruto... don't worry. He's always been like that. You're a cute girl, Yuki-chan, you're just a late-bloomer, like me. I'm twenty-one and I'm still stuck in my own sixteen year old body with barely any chest and no butt to speak of. At least you'll hit a growth spurt soon, and then you'll be beating back the guys with whatever your favorite technique happens to be." She smiled sadly, shaking her head slightly.

"I won't get much bigger than this my mom says, because she's short, skinny and petite all over. She says I take after her and grandma." Getting finished with dressing, I tweaked one of the girl's pigtails.

"It doesn't matter what you look like anyway, Yuki-chan, because everyone's different and the world wouldn't be any fun if we all looked like Tsunade-shishou, right?" She pursed her lips in a blatant show of skepticism, her arms crossed protectively over her chest.

"I guess, but looking like this certainly isn't helping me get a boyfriend, that's for sure." Putting back on my glasses, watch, headband and collar, I patted the young girl's shoulder.

"If he only cares about what you look like, he isn't worth it anyway, Yuki-chan. Besides, if you want to be the best kunoichi you can be, you're going to spend so much time training that you'll never have time for a boyfriend, forget having a really full figure, because you'll burn off any fat your body tries to store in your chest and rear." She looked me up and down critically.

"Is that why you look like you've gone too many rounds with Naruto-sensei's bad side? You train too much and don't heal yourself properly?" I looked down, trying to pick out what she was seeing. Taking a few steps towards me, she started to point out the cuts I still bore from my last spar with Sasuke, particularly the larger ones where the scabs had softened and fallen off from the hot water which had started to bleed again. Truth be told, I had forgotten to stitch them up and they hadn't even bothered me enough to make me remember. _Hope they don't get infected..._

"Believe it or not, these were a lot worse before I healed them and I didn't have my kit with me to stitch them up at the time. Guess I just forgot about them." Her mouth fell open in a mixture of shock and concern as she stepped forward again, probably to try and heal some of them. I stepped back, holding my arm out straight to stop her.

"Why would you want to stitch them instead of just healing them completely? And how could you just forget about them, they must hurt a lot!" I shook my head at her before taking my towel and wiping away a streak of blood through the mesh shirt.

"Because, given the chance it's better to let the body heal itself, otherwise it becomes dependent on chakra based treatments and forgets how. As for how I forgot, well, they're superficial and just don't really hurt. It's not necessarily a bad thing to be able to ignore such insignificant injuries, especially if you dislike being treated in a hospital as much as I do." She stood up straight, scratching the end of her nose as she blushed slightly. Looking closely, I noticed that she had a slight smattering of barely noticeable freckles across her cheeks.

"Oh, okay. I didn't know that the body could forget to heal itself, that's kind of freaky. Why don't you like hospitals though?" I shrugged at the silly question. What a curious kid.

"Lots of people don't like being in hospitals, just like lots of people are afraid of needles and getting shots or stitches. Personally, I'm just so used to healing myself that I don't like people that I'm not familiar with touching me, that's all." She blushed a bit harder.

" Yeah, I guess I understand. I'm one of those people that don't like needles, actually. I don't like the smell of antiseptic or disinfectant either, so that's why I'm taking the exam to qualify to be a full-fledged field medic. Are you a field medic or a hospital one, Sakua-sa- I mean, Sakura." I shrugged again.

" Field, but more than anything I've been assigned the job of being a personal attendant to the two most hospital hating shinobi in town, the knuckleheads. Apparently they have a habit of attacking the medics who treat them normally, but they don't even bother to try with me. I'd like to think that it's because they know better." She nodded, smiling suddenly.

"So you're the one that got saddled with Uchiha-san and Hatake-san? I heard about that, and boy am I glad. Uchiha-san has broken my arm six times since I graduated from the academy and put me to sleep more times than I can remember. I've never even seen Hatake-san though, let alone attempted to treat him. I've heard that that's pretty well a suicide mission." I laughed, even as our male counterparts entered the room, barely even bothering with their towels.

"Hn. Well, we should probably continue this conversation outside. I'm sure Hatake-san doesn't want to hear what the medics at the hospital think of him. See you outside, Kakashi, Naruto." Yuki-chan's eyes went wide and she started stuttering as she attempted to look around me at the two men and I started to guide her out of the room.

"Sakura, what did you do, you're bleeding all over the place." I rolled my eyes, gently pushing Yuki-chan out the door before answering.

"I never knew you to be so dramatic, Kakashi. I'll need you to help me stitch up when we go back home though, all joking aside. Don't dawdle, lest I bleed to death." That last remark was just a sarcastic jab at his normal tendency towards being late, but the concern on both of the men's faces told me that it apparently wasn't very funny. _Oh well._ Shrugging, I left the room, continuing on out until I was actually outside, where Yuki-chan practically pounced on me.

"I thought Hatake-san was an old guy, Naruto-sensei says that he used to be his sensei!" I nodded, brushing the girl off of me. After soaking in a hot spring especially, thirty degree weather was not the best condition to be in close proximity with anyone in.

"Kakashi is a guy, he just turned into a girl to keep me company in there. I'm not supposed to be left alone, Tsunade's orders." Her jaw dropped and she started to openly gape at me.

"But Naruto-sensei says he's an old pervert, you just let him see you naked like that?!" I couldn't help but laugh.

"Naruto's one to talk, he's a pervert too. He saw you change, didn't he? And I'll bet it was his idea to come find me in the hot spring, because I'm willing to bet money on it that it wasn't yours. Besides, I'm dating Kakashi, so whether he sees me naked or not doesn't matter too much anyway." Her horrified expression couldn't hide her blush.

"N-naruto-sensei didn't see me change, I made sure his back was turned, and ew, you're dating an old pervert? He's old enough to be Naruto-sensei's... uh... sensei..." Her expression kind of scrunched up as she trailed off, realizing that her statement sounded kind of odd.

"Naruto's your sensei and he's only five years older than you, you know. You don't have to be old to be accomplished enough to teach a genin squad, Yuki-chan. Oh, and stop talking like he was only Naruto's sensei, he was mine too." Her face scrunched up even more and she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Ew, ew, ew, you're dating your genin sensei?! That's just... ew, Sakura, even if you say he's not old." I shook my head as I placed a hand on hers, flicking at one of her pigtails.

"Ah, one day you'll figure out that something like that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. You can't help who you're attracted to anyways, I just happened to snag the perfect guy." I jumped as I felt a weight on my shoulder and turned red at the warm breath teasing the stray wisps of hair at my ear.

"I'm perfect now, huh? Never thought I'd hear that from you, Sakura. Not that I'm complaining, mind you." I turned and just missed the brunette with my fist as he jumped back out of reach. Scowling at the senbon caught in his insolent smirk, I started to crack the knuckles of one fist in the other threateningly.

"Is there a reason you're just hanging all over me, or are you just looking for a reason to get sent to the hospital in pieces, Genma?" He held his hands up defensively, smirk still firmly plastered in place.

"Just came to see if my favorite little cherry blossom was getting tired of her old teacher and might want to have a little fun." I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Genma, I'd have to be blind and retarded to choose you over Kakashi. Now go away, I have enough problems to deal with without you being added to them." Unfazed, he turned his attention to the younger girl with me, who treated him with almost the same attitude than I had, albeit with less than desired results. I sighed audibly. The guy was just a pain sometimes.

"Genma, get the hell away from her before I put you in another body cast." All three of our gazes flickered to where Naruto stood, male again and very obviously pissed, the dull red tint in his eyes a good indicator of just how much so. Smug smirk drifting across her face, Yuki-chan sauntered around her attentive audience and without so much as batting an eyelash towards the bandanna-sporting jounin approached Naruto and hopped up onto his back for a piggyback ride, shooting an evil grin over her sensei's spiky blond hair. Genma backed away from them towards me, but mine and Kakashi's voices in unison stopped him mid-step, just as I was pulling out a senbon from my wraps and twirling it among my fingers.

"Bad idea, Genma." He sighed, looking annoyed.

"What is it with girls and their overprotective teachers anymore? You'd think that they weren't grown women who could think for themselves." His hands found their way to his pockets as he continued to chomp down on his senbon and Naruto was the one to reply.

"Yuki-chan is not a grown woman, she's a teenager. You have no business hitting on her, you lech." He shrugged, his eyes no longer resting on either blond, instead watching me intently.

"I would never seriously make a move on someone so young, I was just teasing her. Sakura over her, on the other hand..."

"Is already spoken for, Genma." I tried to stop the blush that started to creep across my cheeks as I felt Kakashi's jounin vest against my nearly bare back and his arm wrap around my waist. I couldn't halt the undoubtedly silly smile that I felt grace my lips though, and uncrossed my arms to rest one hand and arm over his, the other still twirling my senbon in plain view. Genma just looked irritated as he turned away and started walking.

"I know, I know, she already gave us that speech. How you landed her when she's only been in town for a week I'll never know, but to each his own. Sakura, if you ever get tired of your 'perfect' guy, my offer still stands, gorgeous." I turned red, this time unable to stop it.

" 'Perfect guy'?" I wanted to just melt away like an ice cube under the sun, faced with Kakashi's curious reverberating against the back of my neck. Yuki-chan thankfully saved me from answering.

"Hmmm... I still think it's weird that you'd date such an old guy, Sakura.... But... if you say he's perfect, he must be a pretty sweet one. Why does he wear a mask though? Is he really ugly? Does he have a lot of scars, or buck teeth or something?!" I felt him smirk and turned a shade redder, raising my hand to cover my face.

"Sakura doesn't like to share." Naruto crossed his arms, snorting in disbelief.

"Kakashi, you've been wearing that dumb thing since you were on my dad's team, I know, I've seen the photo. I dunno you two, I still think this is a bit weird... I really think Sasuke would be better for you, Sakura..." I stiffened. The mention of Sasuke only drew my mind back to recent developments and I turned away from the blonds, letting go of Kakashi as I started walking.

"... See you later, Naruto. Yuki-chan, I'll come find you for training sometime later this week." I barely gave Naruto and Yuki-chan time to reciprocate my farewell before I had performed the seals to transport myself as close as physically possible to my unlocked bedroom window, risking the headache and nausea I knew would follow, both due to my low levels of chakra and me still being largely unused to instant travel. Dizzy, I sat down on the grass in my backyard, eyes closed while I waited patiently for the unpleasant sensation to pass. Not surprisingly, Kakashi poofed into existence beside me long before the complaints abated.

"Should I ask what that was all about?" I shrugged, standing up.

"You just did. It might help me know what to answer if I knew what you were talking about though." Walking to my window, I pulled it open and groaned softly. They hadn't been kidding when they said that they left everything on my bed.

"Well, an explanation about the 'perfect' comments would be appreciated, but mostly I'm referring to how quickly you left, using a jutsu that you aren't in any condition to be using." I leaned in through the window and picked out some of the bags that didn't contain anything breakable, shoving them all off to the side to give me room to climb in. Once inside, I took the rest of the stuff on the bed and set it all on the floor, where the spoils of our shopping before lunch already sat, taking up a good majority of the clear space. I cleared a path to the door, heading out to the living room to grab my kit and picking up a few towels on the way back. Upon my return, Kakashi was already sitting on the edge of my bed, curiously poking through a lavender bag clearly labeled 'Kunoichi's Secret', causing me to burst out giggling. His eyes barely inclined towards me at the sound, as apparently the contents of the bag were more interesting at the moment.

"You should go wash your hands while I get things set up." He nodded and left the room while I started to get things ready. One towel I laid out flat on the bed and the others I set still folded on the edge of the desk, next to the bottle of antiseptic, needle, thread, medical tape and gauze pads that I retrieved from my bag. I quickly stripped down to my underpants, hanging my dampened clothes on my closet doorknob to avoid getting any blood on the floor. Off came my collar, glasses and headband, finding a home on the desk before I laid down on my stomach over the towel, again to avoid an unneeded bloody mess.

"Uh, Sakura?" I tried to suppress the blush that was moving down from my cheeks, not turning to face him. I had been similarly uncovered before him before, but he hadn't ever been touching me like he would be in a moment. _Medical mindset, Sakura. Nothing remotely intimate going on here, it's just like getting stitches from anyone else. He's not even looking anywhere except the cuts. Cool it already._

"Yes? What you need is all laid out for you, so go nuts." _Wow, that nearly sounded like a come on, Sakura. Great job there. _Ignoring the voices in my head, I reached behind my head and pulled all of my hair to one side to expose the end of one of the longer gashes he'd have to stitch. The bed shifted and dipped on the side farthest from the window as he sat down and made himself comfortable.

"What makes you assume that I can stitch you up?" I reached up and brushed a loose strand of hair away from my nose as I heard the liquid slosh around in the antiseptic bottle and felt the coolness and mild sting as it was gently brushed over my back with one of the towels I had left for the purpose.

"One, you hate hospitals, so to treat yourself you would have, at one point, had to have learned how to sew. Two, ANBU medics are few and far between in every hidden village aside from Hanagakure. So, stitches are part of basic first aid training. I'm pretty sure you're more than capable."

"Did you sterilize the needle already?" I felt the bed shift slightly again as he reached back to the desk for the needle and spool of medical thread.

"No, but there's a lighter in the zippered pocket on the inside of the bag flap. It's the metal thing with the black butterfly on it." I heard the telltale sound of the lighter being flicked open and lit, absently wondering how much fluid was left in it's little painted metal tank. The bed shifted once again and I tried my best to relax when he rested his hand on my shoulder. _Medic mindset, Sakura..._

"You're going to have to hold still, I'm not used to doing this to anyone but myself. Any preferences on where I start?" I shifted slightly, getting my arms up into a slightly easier position to deal with than straight at my sides.

"Anywhere you like, none of them are serious enough to really matter what order you do them in and they're all not nearly as bad as they look." The bed shifted again and I felt the needle pierce my skin up near my left shoulder, the one closest to him. He was gentle as he worked, his stitches small and neat while his free hand kept the cuts tightly closed to minimize any scarring afterwards. I was right, he obviously did this a lot and was good at it too.

"What happened to your butterfly?" I quirked a smile, even though he couldn't see it. Once he had finished the first cut, a very short one, I felt him climb over me to kneel on my other side. He started on the longest cut up at the end closest to my neck and I turned my face in the other direction, to be covered temporarily by my hair.

"I was trying on lingerie for an audience, Kakashi, so I hid it, obviously. I just haven't gotten around to showing it again, that's all." He worked a lot slower on this one, and for good reason. It stretched from up beside my neck on my right side straight down along the side of my spine and all the way down to my tail bone, at the same time being intersected by separate horizontal and diagonal slashes in four different spots. Sasuke had gotten me good, that was for sure.

"Ah, I see. So... you still have yet to volunteer an answer for my question earlier. Care to do so now, since you can't do much else anyway?" I rolled my eyes, thinking back. _I didn't answer, did I?_

"Which part do you want to know first? Not that there's a particularly significant explanation for either, mind you. I said you were perfect because it's the truth, and I left because I just don't want to hear about how much Sasuke apparently loves me. Again." I flinched slightly as the needle struck a rib, most likely an accident, an inopportune slip of the hand. Didn't stop it from hurting as much as when the tattooist hit a bone with her needle, which is to say, a lot.

"... You think I'm perfect?" I blushed as I realized that once again I hadn't been thinking before I spoke and desperately wracked my brain for a plausible explanation.

"You're a perfect shinobi, and while you may be flawed as a human being, being human is in itself a flawed existence." There was silence for a moment while he contemplated words that I had quoted from someone else, spoken a little more than a year ago to explain his own existence.

"So what you're actually saying is that everybody's perfect, because we can't be any other way?" I snorted, trying not to giggle and failing horribly. My fidgeting earned me another jab to a rib, again probably not intentional, and I winced just slightly, straightening out in a hurry.

"No, I'm saying that everybody's flawed and perfection is in the eye of the beholder. There is always somebody whose little imperfections fit so well with somebody else's that together they become perfect. Like... puzzle pieces, I guess." I vaguely felt the waistband of my panties get pushed down as he stitched up the tail end of the cut and I forcibly blanked my mind. The gesture was gentle, almost sensual in nature and I really hoped that it was not intentional. I didn't need my mind wandering there of all places, not after what Naruto had said earlier. I was going to have a rough enough night as it was.

"So you believe that everyone has a soulmate." I bit my lip as he tugged a knot into the end of the thread and cut it, pausing to re-thread the needle and clean up with the antiseptic soaked towel again.

"Sort of, not quite though. There are so many people in the world, I find it hard to believe that there is only one perfect person for anyone else. The bonds we form with other people, like friendship, can wear away a person's rough edges and act like mortar, or glue. So, even if two people don't fit right the first time they meet, that can change, so that they become just right together. Am I making sense at all?" He rested his hand softly on my back again, this time leaning across me to start his stitches at the top end of a cut that crossed from the top of my left shoulder blade to the bottom of my right.

"You think that sometimes there's a chance of friends becoming more than that to each other?" Blowing away the hair that was tickling my nose, I nodded slightly.

"If they don't mind risking that friendship to try, than yes, in some cases I do think that friendship is a good foundation to build up a relationship from. Trust is after all the most important thing in any relationship, and who would you trust more than a friend? The biggest hurdle with loving a friend I guess would probably be physical attraction, especially if you've known each other too long, you know?" His stitching stopped and his other hand slid down to the small of my back, generating a small shiver out of me. He seemed to be thinking, or at least at a loss for what to say and I chastised myself for saying too much, just like always.

"Saku-"

**"Sakura!" **Whatever he had been about to say was cut off by the exuberant voices of the dynamic blond duo from the flower shop earlier as they popped their heads in my open window. I had left it open for the breeze, because my house didn't have air conditioning, so of course they didn't bother to knock. Turning my head to peer up at them, I was met with two nearly identical expressions of shock as Kakashi returned to stitching again, looking thoughtful and sort of far away, mentally speaking.

"Haven't you two ever learned how to knock? And what is so appealing about my bedroom window that keeps people from using the front door, honestly?" Ino's mouth dropped open and she tried to shut it repeatedly, while Temari's surprise quickly dissipated, to be replaced with an expression akin to a kid on Christmas. Then again, she was engaged to Shikamaru, so his win was her win.

"What are you doing almost naked and what is Kakashi-sempai doing on your bed?" I couldn't tell if she was just asking a stupid question of if she really couldn't see what Kakashi was doing while he effectively ignored them.

"He's practicing his embroidery skills. What does it look like he's doing, Ino?" Apparently she actually couldn't see, because she hopped up so that she was bent at the waist with her hands on the bed and I could see her sandal-clad feet kicking back and forth in the open air behind her while she watched Kakashi tie off another knot and re-thread the needle yet again before moving down to another, nearly horizontal cut below my shoulder blades.

"Oh, okay. What the hell happened to you, you didn't look this bad yesterday, Forehead. Rough night with your secret boy-toy?" I turned pink at the smirk that teased the edge of Kakashi's mouth under his mask, which he had pulled up at the first sign that we had company.

"No, this is still all Sasuke's handiwork from training, I just forgot about dressing the injuries until they opened up at the hot springs today." Ino's face fell and she hauled herself back out the window. Temari looked less than surprised as she took a peek at my injuries, although that could be because she could see that Sasuke and I plainly didn't get along, unlike Ino whom he had managed to completely blind to the truth of our situation.

"Wow, you two must train hardcore if you're still this bad after two days. Why bother with stitches though, when you can just heal yourself completely yourself, or even letting me heal you back on the field? That's what Naruto came and got me for anyway. And why Kakashi-sempai anyway? You went to see Tsunade-sama today, why not just stop at the hospital on your way back?" I was on the verge of zoning out when she finally stopped, looking at me expectantly for answers. Kakashi moved on to the next cut, a shallow and short one that started immediately over the spine.

"You ask too many questions, Ino-pig. Anyway, what did you come over for? I'm betting it wasn't to visit." She bent down to the ground and then stood back up, lifting in both hands a large white plastic bucket, while Temari held up two more identical ones, one in each hand.

"The shop just got a big order in, so they delivered your paint to my house to make room in the warehouse. You should thank me, these things are damn heavy!" Suddenly excited, I smiled brightly. I had ordered a custom color of paint to cover the faded mauve that decorated the master bedroom, which would be my room shortly enough.

"Cool. Guess I'll be working on cleaning out that room then tonight, so I can start painting tomorrow. Thanks, Ino. You too, Temari, because I'm betting you did most of the carrying." Kakashi poked me in my side to get my attention.

"After dinner, you still haven't eaten yet. Now, roll so that I can finish this leg and start on the other one." I rolled so that he had better access to the side of my leg, where the cut from the wire still showed prominently, arms crossed over my chest to obstruct any view the three might have had of it. Ino smirked, glaring slightly at Kakashi.

"Geez, you let him order you around like that? You'd think he was still your sensei for crying out loud." I rolled my eyes and Ino caught it, raising an eyebrow. Temari just shook her head, possibly understanding but probably more amused at Ino's behavior.

"The last thing he treats me like is is a subordinate, Pig, and it wasn't an order, they were instructions." She sighed, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the sill. She had apparently put the paint back on the ground.

"Hate to tell you this, Forehead, but that sounded an awful lot like an order to me. You know... your rack isn't actually that bad when you don't have it smooshed underneath your wraps, you should show it off more." I blushed. Trust her to somehow change the topic to scrutinizing my physical attributes right in front of the man I hoped wasn't paying attention to my... lack of assets. He knotted off the thread and cut it once again, motioning for me to roll back onto my stomach, his face not betraying that he had even been listening. I rolled back onto my front, arms still crossed over my chest and thus propping up my torso a little better to see the girls I was talking to.

"Ino, I don't need your opinion on my breast size nor my choice of undergarments. I spent the last six years training, what would be the point of wearing anything other than wraps? Besides, you got your way yesterday, I bought some... girlier underwear. What more do you want?" That got Kakashi's attention, at least for a second as his eye momentarily widened and he started to stitch up my other leg. Unlike the last one, where I had been so caught up in conversation that I hadn't even noticed him move down, this time I was aware of his hand on my thigh and it was distracting.

"You bought two bras. Two plain, white bras. You barely even looked at the cute red one I wanted you to try, and that adorable little black nightie you tried on, you didn't even get! Where's the fun in shopping with you when you don't even listen to me?" She was pouting now, her arms crossed loosely on the sill as Temari patted her shoulder, still trying to keep a straight face. I gave her credit, because even Kakashi wasn't being very successful in that endeavor, a slight pink tinge clearly visible above the edge of his mask.

"Ino, give her some credit. The white ones she picked out aren't plain, they're precious, and that red one you liked? First off, she doesn't need a push-up bra, you said it yourself that she doesn't have a bad-sized chest and secondly, that bright of a red would clash so horribly with her hair that she'd blind whoever she happened to be sleeping with." She looked pointedly at the back of Kakashi's head and I noticed that his hand was shaking slightly as he motioned for me to roll on my other side. I did so and Temari continued,a smug grin on her face. "That nightie might have looked sort of cute on her, but it just doesn't fit with her personality, I think. Anyway, I think the black boy cut panties and matching camisole were the sweetest things she bought. I mean, she just looks so good in lace, don't you think?"

"Okay, both of you shut up about what sort of underwear I bought, you're being loud enough that the neighbors are going to hear you." I tried not to think about Kakashi's hand ghosting over the edge of my panties as he cut the thread after knotting it and promptly rolled me onto my back, nearly on his lap. I blushed, my arms crossing themselves a little tighter over my chest as he started on the last of the cuts that needed his attention, the one Yuki-chan had pointed out that bisected my midsection from up to down, left to right.

"Awwww, Sakura-chan's all embarrassed that we're talking about her underwear in front of Kakashi-sempai..." The mock amusement on her face was wiped clean very quickly, unfortunately not by me.

"She's not embarrassed, she's probably going to give him a show after we leave, right, Sakura?" My jaw dropped, along with Ino's and both of our faces turned bright red as we collectively stared at the smug sand kunoichi. A quick glance at Kakashi revealed his cheeks a pinker tinge than I had ever seen them and a barely noticeable dark blotch spreading on his mask just above his upper lip as he tried to stay concentrated on his work. Ino smacked Temari with a short huff, her shock gone.

"Sakura's not like that, she'd never tease an old man like that!" If I were wearing a bra, a shirt, anything, I would've buried my face in my hands to hide the prominent blush that I was sporting. Of course, Temari couldn't just leave the topic alone, no.

"No, I bet you're right. It doesn't qualify as teasing if he's taking them all off as fast as she puts them on. Don't you get it, Ino? He's her... oh, how did you say it? Oh yeah, 'boy-toy'. Although I wouldn't exactly classify him a 'boy'..." I tried to shove the mental imagery and mini fantasy of Kakashi stripping me out of my newly acquired undergarments out of my head, especially since they were being fueled by some very real sensory information, because his hands were still on my skin. I could feel my nose just starting to bleed and desperately tried to blank my mind before it showed, because I especially didn't need him to know that I was fantasizing about him while laying half on his lap and nearly naked. Taking a glance at her, I realized that Ino looked absolutely shell-shocked as she stared between me and Kakashi, while Temari just looked smug and happy and Kakashi was not looking anywhere except at the cut that he was almost done stitching. When Ino spoke again, it was more like shrieking and I was sorely tempted to forget that I was topless and just cover my ears.

"You've been turning down Sasuke for him?! You are the only girl Sasuke will so much as look at and you're snuggling up to your tardy, perverted, lazy, ancient ex-sensei?! How much brain damage have you suffered in the last six years that you could possibly think that this is a good idea?! Damn it, Sakura, does he know that this is the reason you're turning him down, how do you think this is going to make him feel?! How insensitive can you possibly be?! You don't deserve his attention, you deserve to burn with his brother for the suffering you're putting him through!" By the time she was finished yelling she was crying nearly hysterically and Temari was forcefully holding her back away from the window, in case she decided to get violent. Kakashi finished his work, looking less than ecstatic as he set the thread and needle aside and I sat up, watching Ino with an even, calm gaze.

"Ino, in case you haven't noticed, Sasuke and I don't get along in the slightest. Even if I weren't with somebody else, I still wouldn't have anything to do with him. Now that I've made that clear, you and Naruto can just stop with the delusions that me and Sasuke should be together, because I'd rather be caught in purgatory with Itachi than ever see that happen. As for my choice of boyfriends, that it's none of your business is all I can say about it. He's not old nor is he lazy, and my track record concerning punctuality is far from spotless, as is my own mind. Now, if you're done poking your snout around my business, I have a fashion show to put on. Bye." Temari nodded enthusiastically with a 'hell yeah' expression adorning her face while she dragged my newly horrified and enraged former rival away. Once they were gone, I was able to let out a sigh of relief. One arm still covering my chest I reached out the window with my other hand and pulled in the bucketfuls of paint, one at a time before snapping shut the curtain and setting all three down on the floor.

"Well, I think that single-handedly addressed the issue of who knows. By this time tomorrow every shinobi in town will and knowing Ino, they will also start taking sides between you and Sasuke, unfortunately." I slid off of the bed, donning my robe so that I'd have the use of both arms while I repacked my kit.

"I don't think it will matter, Sakura. They don't know what's going on behind the scenes, because if they did, Sasuke would be publicly executed for the stuff he's done to you. I'm not going to worry about it, so you shouldn't." I smiled softly, gathering the dirty towels from the bed and tossing them in the laundry hamper, along with the the dirty clothes that I had hung on my closet door and the neon underpants that I had been wearing for two days. I was wearing a robe, so it's not like he'd see anything anyway.

"You should go home and get a change of clothes, if you're staying the night again. I'm going for a shower and I'm not about to let you watch, so you have time." He raised an eyebrow at me, smirking ever so slightly as I walked back towards the bed where he sat.

"I don't think you have a say, Tsunade said not to let you out of my sight, you know." I leaned forward just enough to flick the end of his nose, catching myself on the bed with my other hand when he caught hold of my wrist and tugged me forward.

"She also thinks our relationship is more than what it is. Now, your mask is soaked in blood and I want to go out for a treat, so you should take the time I'm giving you to go get changed and bring back an extra set of clothes. Tissues are on the desk though, for future reference." His eyes were semi-glazed over and the smirk on his face clearly signified that wherever his mind was, it wasn't here and it was up to no good. Apparently he was listening though.

"Why do you want to go out for dinner? Us going out will only make things worse for you, you know." I shook my head as I put my knee up on the mattress and tried to pull my wrist away from him, with no success. In reaction to me trying to pull away, another short tug in his direction pulled me down onto the bed myself, kneeling to one side of his outstretched legs and very slightly annoyed. I wanted to go have my shower so that I could get dressed and go eat.

"Kakashi, how much worse can it get than Sasuke playing vampire with me? It can't, because that was just gross. Now, I want takoyaki, so we're going out, if you don't mind. I need a shower, so let go of me, please." He didn't, of course, instead tugging me closer once more, this time so that I was kneeling right next to him. Realizing exactly why he looked like he was up to something, I felt my chest tighten and breath catch as my skin started to heat. The mischief glinting in his eye as he pulled down his darkened mask to reveal a knowing smirk certainly wasn't helping either the flip flops my stomach was doing or my inability to breathe.

"Takoyaki's just a snack, Sakura. You'll have to come up with a better reason than that." He pulled me forward again to close the gap between us, not with any real urgency or force, but not with anything resembling hesitation either, letting go of my wrist in favor of my hand, his fingers trailing softly along my own. His lips were deliciously soft and warm, but there was something deeper behind his kiss as I reciprocated, something he was repressing that made my stomach somersault and my skin heat up all over under an already thin sheen of sweat from the warmth of the day.

I was the one who broke the kiss, fearing what it might do to our friendship if I let it linger, my fingers already itching to rid him of the layers of clothing that I couldn't possibly imagine wearing on a day like today. Sitting back, I extricated my hand from his, intent on keeping my face as calm as I could while my blush settled and my hands stopped shaking, forcibly slowing down my heart rate and breathing to a normal pace with a bit of the chakra I had left. I watched out of curiosity as he pressed his lips together and then licked them, a slight expression of surprise on his face.

"Cinnamon? I expected mint again."

"That was what that was about? You wanted to know what flavor of lip balm I was wearing? You just had to ask, I would have told you." Damned tease. I turned and slid off of the bed, crossing the room to the door and opening it again.

"No, that was to guage whether or not you'd go and panic if I did something similar during our date. Have fun in your shower." The sly note to his voice as I turned to see him hop out the window under the curtain turned my cheeks pink again at his insinuation.

Slightly irked, I wondered if there was anything I could do to similarly taunt him, aside from being so forward my own embarrassment would cause me to internally combust. Nothing came to mind immediately and I retreated to have my shower and finish up with whatever first aid I had left. It was so unfair for him to be able to get that kind of reaction from me with such a chaste kiss and for me not to be able to do much about it, especially when I liked that reaction. I just wished it went both ways.


	19. 18

_**GR's Note: **Woo! Finally finished typing this one. I'm noting right now that t**his story is rated M for a reason**! Okay, now that that's been said, My updates for **Maybe Forever** will be a bit slower, but I am not by any means on hiatus. Enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think! (Just don't kill me, or you'll never find out what happens next)_

- 18 -

"Here you are. Not ready yet?" I looked up from my task to the man who had so casually opened the bathroom door, letting out the accumulated steam and heat from the shower I had gotten out of about ten minutes previous. I couldn't reply, one end of an unrolled bandage being held taut between my teeth while I wrapped the other end around my upper arm, and instead turned my attention back to myself, blushing slightly. He had apparently taken the idea of our 'date' seriously, and was dressed not in his usual navy blue attire but instead in a closer-fitting black sweatshirt and jeans combo, forgoing his headband in favor of a plain black eye patch and his normal blue mask for a black one. Satisfied that I was adequately treated, I let the bandage fall from my mouth and tied the ends, flexing the muscle to be sure I hadn't wrapped it too tightly.

"You're back faster than I expected actually, so no, I'm not ready. Go wait for me in the living room or something and I'll be dressed in a few." I hopped off the bathroom counter where I had been sitting and put the leftover roll of gauze back into the medicine cabinet before walking out the door past Kakashi and into my bedroom, pulling the door mostly shut behind me to obscure his sight. I just knew he wouldn't go wait at the other end of the house, and of course, I just had to be right, too.

"Honestly, I'm fine, you can go sit down or something, Kakashi. I'll be right out." His chakra signature remained directly behind the door though and upon receiving no answer whatsoever, I turned my focus to the jumbled mess of bags that had been my bedroom up until yesterday before lunch. If he was going out of his way to make this a date, there was no reason for me not to do the same.

Slightly giddy, I wanted to wear one of the cute little outfits that I had been coerced into buying, or at least had acted like it in front of the one helping me pick them. I couldn't let her get it in her head that her choices did, on occasion, reflect my own, lest her already enormous ego inflate even more. Picking through the bags, I found the one I wanted rather quickly and took out the dress I had been looking for, a simple forest green t-shirt dress with a button-down front and a moderately low-cut neckline. The neck was low enough that I couldn't wear wraps without it looking weird, so I found the bag Kakashi had been poking through earlier and sifted through enough lace and silk to make me cringe before finding one of the sets that hadn't been mentioned in Kakashi's presence, a white cotton camisole and panty combo with pink lace edging and a pattern of pale pink hearts scattered all over them. It sounds cheesy, but too damn bad, I think they're beyond adorable.

Taking a glance at the door to ensure that it remained shut, I quickly got dressed and pulled a brush through my damp hair in front of my closet mirror, fluffing it slightly with my fingers until I was satisfied with the way it looked. On went a pair of white socks and running shoes and after a bit of scrutiny, my eyes strayed to a tiny bag that I had put on the desk. Inside were 'the basics', according to Ino. A tube of clear mascara, because she said black was too dark and brown would look weird on me. A palette of pale blushes and eyeshadow, which she told me to go easy on because my coloring was too delicate to pull off her favorite bold and dark colors. A tube of dark-pink-almost-red lipstick and a tube of perfectly clear gloss, another thing I was supposed to go very easy on, because bright red would of course clash with my hair and pale pink looked too young.

Fortunately, I hadn't completely forgotten how to apply makeup and act like a girl, thanks to a certain curly-haired blond medic in an all-girl village. The woman had refused to give it a rest about my all-important kunoichi training, which I had all but failed as a student at the academy, until I could curtsy, dance properly, cook passably, do just about anything in a full-length skirt and high-heels and look like a lady. Thankfully, that last criteria meant that I knew how to put on a little bit of make-up. Not a lot, because that's not very ladylike and a kunoichi should only look like a harlot if she has to masquerade as one for a mission.

"How long does it take to get dressed, Sakura, honestly?" I rolled my eyes as I picked a light gray shadow, almost white, and started to brush it over my eyelids.

"I told you to make yourself comfortable. Settle down, I'm almost ready." Clear mascara, peachy pink blush and just barely enough lipstick to stain my lips. I forewent the gloss in favor of the same lip balm I had been wearing earlier, the cinnamon flavored one, because I'm not a big fan of shiny, sticky lip gloss when I know I'm going out to eat. The tube of balm found its way to my dress pocket along with my wallet, just in case. Ready, I went to the door and opened it to find Kakashi leaning back against the wall, exactly where he had been before I even got dressed.

"Ready to go?" He turned to look at me and say something, but it never made it off his tongue as he did an apparent double-take. How cute, I had managed to surprise him. Smiling sweetly, I turned and sauntered down the hall, giggling to myself in my head. _Hell yeah, I shocked Kakashi into silence! Cha! _

"You're certainly going all-out tonight. Somebody you're trying to impress?" We were out the door and I was locking up before he managed to even say that, and I shrugged at him as I put my key in my pocket.

"Hm, maybe. I'm not quite sure about impressing, but I know that there are a whole bunch of people we've got to fool into thinking that we're actually on a date, in any case. Although... you're not really one to talk, I don't think I've ever seen you in civilian clothes before." We started walking and almost as an afterthought I took his hand, interlacing my own bandaged fingers with his as I moved a little to close the gap between us while we walked. If our body language didn't mesh with people's perceptions, we were going to get called on it real fast. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and let go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders with a smirk, just like he had at the hospital. He had the right idea, and I snuggled into his arm, enjoying the closeness.

"I never said it was a bad thing. You look nice like this." Blushing, I turned my face into my shoulder to hide it. How many people had ever sincerely told me that I looked nice other than my mom, Naruto or Lee? I could count them on one hand.

"Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself, you should wear black more often." _Like a yummy black ANBU uniform..._ I shoved the thought aside as it brought to mind my dream from the early hours of this morning and frowned slightly.

"Something wrong?" I shook my head, forcing a smile again. Thinking about and analyzing the dream could wait until late at night, when I would likely be unable to sleep anyway.

"Not anything more than there was when I woke up." He nodded knowingly and squeezed my shoulders tightly for a moment, causing me to smile more genuinely.

"It gets easier, Sakura. It'll just take time to get used to and training will help things go faster. We can start tomorrow, if you feel up to it." I grinned appreciatively, reaching up to my shoulder to squeeze his hand gently. He was willing to go against Tsunade's orders to help me and even if he didn't know it, the gesture meant a lot.

"Thanks, I appreciate it, but not until later in the day tomorrow, I really do want to get that room started." We weren't that far from my favorite takoyaki stand anymore and I beamed. I could almost taste the delectable little treats already.

"So you're going to force me into doing manual labor all night? That's mean, Sakura." I laughed and gently shoved him in response to his mock pouting.

"I never said you had to help, Kakashi, I'm perfectly capable of cleaning out some old clothes and moving furniture." We reached the stand and I ordered, while the distaste on Kakashi's face indicated that he wasn't planning on doing the same. We took my little snack aside and sat down on a nearby bench to continue talking while I savored the much missed treat. I hadn't had good takoyaki in years, and that particular stand made the best in all of Fire Country.

"You're supposed to be taking it easy, Sakura." The slightly amused expression on his face made it difficult to take him seriously, and so I couldn't help but giggle.

"'Taking it easy' isn't a phrase with any meaning to me. I'll still do what I want as long as I'm capable of it and I don't want to hear anything telling me that I shouldn't, because I know for a fact that you used to be just as bad and probably still are." I had to eat sort of slowly, because of how hot the little fried treats were, but it still didn't take me long to finish them. A glance at Kakashi once I was done revealed him to be watching me with a stern gaze.

"You think that because I do it, it's a good idea? I get bitched at by every medic who catches me doing something 'reckless', as they put it. You should know, you used to do it too." I rolled my eyes. Honestly, what did you expect? I had only been fourteen or fifteen and Tsunade's orders were law. Besides, opening a major wound was one thing while being just easy to tire was entirely another.

"I grew up and changed. Besides, I go crazy if I have nothing to do and there's nothing really wrong with me! Please tell me you at least see where I'm coming from..." He nodded and I stood up off the bench, dusting off my skirt before I tossed out my garbage.

"Ready to go and get something that actually counts as a meal?" He had stood up and shoved his hands back in his pockets, watching me closely. Excited and slightly embarrased, I hopped back over to him and he caught me around the shoulders again, planting a kiss on the top of my head as he did so.

"Sorry, I've just really been wanting that since I got back. Konoha has the best!" Oddly enough, he chuckled. I didn't quite see what was so funny though.

"That sounds an awful lot like a craving, you know." I turned pink and swatted his hand gently at his teasing.

"So what?! I mean, I haven't had the stuff since I left, cut me some slack!" _I can't believe he's laughing at me!_

"You lied to Tsunade. You said you weren't having them." He was still teasing, but the cute expression on his face made me sort of forget to be annoyed at him.

"Completely unrelated to my condition, I assure you. Now, can we stop talking about me having cravings? I'd like to forget that the only thing the village wants from me now are kids, thanks." _Because the last thing I need is a reminder. _His face sort of fell as he became serious again, looking thoughtfully at me.

"Sakura, nobody thinks of you like that." I crossed my arms and glared sideways at him, causing him to scratch the back of his neck sheepishly as he rethought his wording. "Okay, they do want you to have kids, but I'm sure they value the skills you contribute to the village even if you decide not to." I rolled my eyes, though his optimism was touching. I just knew better, that's all.

"You remember that little chat we had about why Sasuke wouldn't be punished for placing the curse mark on me? Remember that part about the elders valuing what can be contributed to Konoha's future over what's good now? Yeah, the concept still applies, Kakashi." This isn't where I had wanted the conversation to turn, I had wanted to be able to temporarily ignore the situation and just have fun.

"You know, you're still jumping too far ahead. You have time to find someone who either wouldn't care about having kids or that you wouldn't mind having kids with, sometime down the line." I smiled dryly, not quite convinced.

"A month." He obviously noted the skepticism in my voice and quirked an eyebrow at me.

"What? Not long enough to snag your dream guy? I'd help, if you'd tell me who he is, you know." _Yeah, I somehow doubt that'd work._

"I gave you more than enough clues, Kakashi, you just don't want to guess, that's all. Either that or you have guessed and are just playing dumb to spite me. Either way, I doubt you sincerely care about why I'm interested in and I doubt even more that you'd help me out." It was only once I said the words out loud that I realized that I was probably right. He hadn't guessed because he honestly didn't care about my love life. Most depressing realization ever.

"Sakura, I don't honestly think there's a guy on earth worth your time, but you've been stuck into circumstances which nobody should rightfully have to deal with. I'd rather see you happy than see you shoved into the arms of somebody like Sasuke." Tearing up a bit, I turned my face away from him to hide them and the accompanying blush I felt creeping up my face. Maybe seeing the way things were between Sasuke and I was starting to make him a little protective of me? But then, Shizune said he was protective when I was a kid, too. It was flattering though, that he had such a high opinion of me.

"You still wouldn't think he was worth my time if I thought he was? Besides, he definitely isn't a thing like Sasuke, that prick is getting to be a real piece of work." I somehow managed to keep the tears from falling and my voice steady, and my words were met with a low chuckle.

"Sakura, at one point you thought 'that prick' was worth your time. But... you seem to have been able to take off the blinders, so maybe he is worth it, I'm not sure. I'd have to meet him and see for myself." I shook my head, rolling my eyes and expelling an exasperated breath. If I had been a girlier girl, one like Ino, I would've pulled a compact out of my purse and handed it to him before telling him to take a good look in the mirror. I thought this was the man who always taught us to look 'underneath the underneath'. Way to practice what you preach, Sensei.

"You know, if you'd just humor me and play my little guessing game, you'd probably find that you knew him all along." I hadn't really noticed until we were already there and Kakashi was guiding me inside that he had taken me to a sweet little restaurant with a candy colored, cafe-like decor and I had to stifle a giggle. It was one of those places you just couldn't imagine a shinobi in at all, forget one as distinctly male as Kakashi. It looked like someplace I might have gone for my twelfth birthday, and I couldn't manage to keep a straight face as he led me to a table sort of at the back, one with a pink gingham tablecloth.

"Sakura, you'll have to be more specific than that, I know a good majority of Konoha's shinobi population, even if I find that sometimes I really couldn't care less for most of those acquaintances." I scrunched up my nose and stuck my tongue out at him, while he just shot me a smirk that said quite plainly that he knew he was starting to get on my nerves about this.

"At last count, I seem to remember you having it narrowed down to about fifteen guys, so don't give me that. Honestly, how hard is it just to guess? I could walk over to jounin headquarters right now, pull up my file and read off every team leader I've ever served under. Eliminate the chuunin and ANBU and everyone else we've already counted out, and the number drops even farther. Right there we've narrowed it to there being maybe a dozen options. I swear, you're just not trying." He laughed, sitting back in his chair as we were approached by a waitress in an adorable pink dress with pouffy sleeves and a short flouncy skirt, covered in a pale blue, almost white pinafore. White leather flats and sheer thigh high stockings completed the whole Alice in wonderland meets cafe-waitress look, but the girl pulled it off well.

"Ah, Nii-chan's old teammates! It's been a while, Sakura-sempai. Kakashi-sempai, you didn't take your usual table, is today a special occasion?" The girl bowed politely and I gaped slightly at the short orange pigtails, the completely recognizable dimples and shiny dark eyes. She might have been twelve when I last saw her obediently tagging along after Naruto's brown-haired protege, but she had certainly grown up since I had been gone, filling out to be a cute, almost doll-like teenager.

"Moegi-chan. It has been a while, hasn't it? Shinobi life get too boring for you?" She burst into adorable peals of laughter, attracting the attention of another table, one occupied solely by what looked like her fan club. At least, that's what the dreamy-eyed gazes and catcalls emanating from there were telling me.

"No, I work here when I'm not on missions, my mom's the owner. What can I get you two?" The way she cocked her head side when she asked a question made me appreciate why she had a fan club at least. Kakashi didn't even bother to open the menu.

"Same as usual, Moegi-chan." She giggled and batted her eyelashes as she bent down, resting her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands.

"Mom just made them fresh, you know. Take down your mask and I'll bring you a couple extra, Sempai." I bristled as one bubblegum colored fingernail dragged down his cheek and somehow couldn't stop the words that came out of my mouth.

"Hands off, kid." She curled back her finger but didn't actually back away, looking at me in curiosity while I went pink and averted my eyes from the obvious smirk being shot across the table at me.

"Aww come on Sempai, I know you and Naruto-niichan have been dying to see it too. Now's a great ti- Oh...Oh!" She seemed to hit a realization before she finished her thought and snapped her hand back as if she had been burned, both hands clapped to her mouth as she jumped up to a stand.

"Oh my god, oh my god! Moooooom! You'll never believe this!" She was yelling at the top of her lungs as she took off running into what I presumed was the kitchen and the door slammed shut behind her. Kakashi's repressed snickers bubbled forth and drew my attention back to him, causing me to cross my arms defensively and attempt to stop my cheeks from turning any redder.

"What's so funny?" I sat back in my chair, one leg dangling over my other knee as I stared back at his infuriatingly smug face.

"I never would have pegged you as the jealous type, that's all." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"I was your student and teammate before I left and it still took me nine years to get under your mask." _Now, the question is, how long will it take to get under the rest of those clothes?_ Shoving my thoughts aside, I fixed my eyes on him again, thinking nothing else really needed to be said in my defense.

"You weren't here for six of those years, so in reality it only took you three years to get under my mask, a record in anyone's book. You didn't think I was actually going to let her pull it down, did you? She pulls the same stunt every time I'm here, and she still hasn't gotten me to say yes. Really, Sakura." A record? Well, apparently Naruto hadn't seen his face, or he'd be bragging about it to everyone and Sasuke...I doubt it. Thinking about it, or course it was obvious that he wouldn't let her pull it down, especially not in public like this. After all, how many women had probably already tried?

"Oh hush. I wasn't thinking, leave me alone about it. I happen to like my privilege remaining just that, mine." Absently, I played with the bandage poking out from under my sleeve, a stark contrast to the darker skin it lay against.

"The privilege remains solely yours. After all, I imagine that your tattoo is quite similar, so it's only fair that you get to see my face after I saw it." I hadn't actually thought about it that way, but thinking like that, did that mean there was actual significance to letting me see his face, since he knew my tattoo had been meant for somebody special? Maybe it was just because we had seen each other accidentally, he just meant that there wasn't any reason to hide it. _Maybe I should stop thinking about it._

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Anything to get my mind away from topics I would think in circles about, never actually getting anywhere with.

"You just did, but you can ask another." Again his voice was smirking and I started to kick my foot gently up and down, asking the first thing that came to mind without really thinking about it.

"How have you been avoiding getting married for so long if the elders have been pushing for you to do so?" It hadn't been what I had been expecting to ask and the concerned, almost surprised look on his face when I hazarded another glance away from the tablecloth said to me that it hadn't been what he was expecting either.

"Sakura, you really need to stop worrying about what they expect of you. If you really don't want to get married, they can't force you to, it has to be you that signs the license after all." I rested an elbow on my knee and my chin in my palm as I watched him. He looked intensely serious and almost mournful as he administered his advice, not that I'd probably ever understand why. This man was more difficult to figure out than most other men I had ever spoken with, both enigmatic Uchihas included.

"Don't worry about me, I asked how you dealt with it. If I don't get what I want, my non-disclosure agreement is still in effect for another four years. There's not much keeping me in the village besides you, if I really don't want to put up with it." That certainly got his attention, forcing him to abandon the more subdued and downplayed expressions he was so good at in favor of unrestrained shock as I realized what I just said and looked away, playing off a bored expression to hide my embarrassment. _I am such an idiot when I'm tired..._

"You're going to leave again?!" I waved my hand quickly in a motion for him to quiet down. I had barely ever heard him raise his voice, even if it was just a bit, and he was attracting the attention of the other patrons.

"Keep it down, I'm not leaving if I have a choice. Just call it Plan B for now, alright?" Apparently he hadn't heard the part about him keeping me here, or was just plain disregarding it. Across the table from me, his gaze turned dark and pensive, focused on the table itself rather than me for the first time that evening.

"So if Plan A isn't working by the end of the month, you'll be leaving again?" I nodded cautiously, watching him. He didn't look up at me.

"I won't leave permanently, I'll come back at relatively regular intervals. Otherwise I can only imagine the messages Jiraiya would end up bringing me from Naruto and Tsunade. I just need to make sure I'm away enough that I can't get pinned down, because like it or not, even if I'm not the one who signs the license, if it's my name and the forgery's good enough, it _is_ binding." He didn't nod or make any indication that he heard me at all for several minutes before he gave me a reply, apparently still deep in thought about something.

"You leaving again won't merit the best of responses from anyone, you know. Wouldn't it be better to even enter a marriage of convenience with someone you trust? All marriage consists of are two names on a piece of paper and a chakra binding ceremony, there's nothing in the rules anywhere that says a husband and wife have to have an intimate relationship." I raised my eyes to him again, this time to catch him watching me like a hawk. To be honest, there was something a bit unnerving about his gaze that set me on edge, but I couldn't place it.

"Making an offer? I wouldn't want to ruin your evasive behavior towards the elders though, and I really don't want to pin down a friend for no reason." _I don't want you stuck with because you think you have to be, I want you to want it too._

"You make it sound like a problem. Nothing has to change between us, and you can get it annulled whenever you manage to catch the eye of whoever you want. If Naruto wasn't already married, he'd make the same offer and you know it. Friends don't let friends suffer the decisions of controlling old geezers that enjoy playing with peoples' lives." His loyalty to his friends was incredibly touching, but I couldn't help the hesitance I felt. Faking a relationship was one thing, but an entire marriage? Despite what he said, marriage was a sacred bond and shouldn't be taken so lightly, even if we were shinobi.

"I'll think about it. I'd still rather get married to someone who cares for me as more than a friend than simply get married because I have to." I felt rather than saw him regard me carefully, but when he did finally decide to say something, he was interrupted once again, this time by a marginally quieter duo of girls I called friends.

"Wow, when Ino came and told me you were dating your sensei, I didn't honestly believe her. Go figure, huh?"

"Tenten, they probably don't want to be bothered, we should go... I'm sure Nii-san will be needing help with the twins soon too." Despite the quieter girl's discretion, they both stayed, mostly because Tenten dragged Hinata to the table beside us and forcefully pushed her down onto a chair, eliciting a quiet squeak from her before sitting down herself, facing me with one elbow up on the table and one ankle thrown up onto her other knee. Kakashi once again looked fairly distant after being interrupted, and I had to wonder at the reason while I found myself snickering at the observation that both women were once again wearing color-swapped matching outfits. Plain t-shirts in pink and lavender and denim capri pants, one faded, one really dark. These two must have gotten really close while I was gone, it seemed.

"Is this really the best time, you two? I'm glad to see you, but as you can see, I'm kind of in the middle of something." Tenten shrugged and Hinata's face went red, while I leaned forward onto the table, sighing softly and resting my chin in my hands. I had to wonder why it was so interesting that I was dating Kakashi, or even why anyone honestly cared who I dated at all.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. Tenten, come on, we're bothering them. They were probably talking about something important and we're just interrupting." Hinata tried to tug on Tenten's hand and was quickly shrugged off by the more forceful girl.

"Aw, come on, we barely get to see you Sakura, at least indulge us for a few minutes while the boys have the kids. We can't stay long anyway!" I sighed again, glad at least for Kakashi's endless patience, because I was certainly starting to lose mine. It wasn't even me who kept getting interrupted either.

"Alright, alright, we have the rest of the night to talk anyway, I guess. So, how are you two? Hinata, I'm surprised that Tsunade discharged you in your condition, there's no way you should be healed yet." She smiled shyly and looked away in the other direction while Tenten took over and did the talking.

"Hiashi-sama negotiated with Tsunade for Hinata to be released back to the manor under her sister's care. Call it an excuse to see more of his daughters while the old man still has a chance. Neji's been taken out of ANBU circulation for the time being, not that I'm complaining, it's actually really nice seeing how much he adores the boys, he's such a sweet father! Of course, the boys look just like him, although I wouldn't have minded if much if they looked a little more like me, you know? Ryo's the quieter of the two, Hizashi cries a little more..." Tenten's particular brand of rambling wasn't quite the same as Ino's in that it wasn't nearly as aggressive, yet it still had the same effect, making it so that I couldn't get a word in. You could tell two seconds in that she truly adored her children and I couldn't help but smile. She was going to be a terrific mother and her little boys just sounded so cute. Sometime while she was talking Moegi had come around with Kakashi's order and he had eaten it characteristically fast, without showing his face of course. I don't honestly think either Hinata or Tenten even noticed, because even I barely did. What I did notice, eventually, was that I still hadn't even ordered anything. Oh well, there were still muffins I could snack on once I got back home, I wasn't all that hungry after the takoyaki.

"Sakura? Can I ask you something?" My waning attention snapped to the quieter of the two women, noticing vaguely as it did that Kakashi had finally picked up Icha Icha Tactics again, and actually appeared to be reading. He must have had it in his jeans pocket when we left. Old habits die hard, after all.

"Go ahead." She fidgeted, turning red and her voice had taken on it's old familiar stutter again. Poor girl, must not be fun to be so shy.

"Um, d-don't take this the w-wrong w-way... W-why are you d-dating K-kakashi-sempai?" She shrank back a bit, probably anticipating a bad reaction from me. Even Tenten sat back out of my reach, looking intensely curious. I scowled slightly but made no other action, knowing that these two weren't really to blame. Don't shoot the messenger, right?

"Who put you up to this, Hinata? I know you aren't asking for yourself, because you already know the answer. You're asking because somebody thinks I'm lying to them and they want you to try and get the truth out of me, right?" The muffled squeak she emitted and the surprised look Tenten shot me told me that my intuition was spot-on. I knew these two would understand more than anyone else except maybe Temari, each having married their own childhood crushes.

"Naruto told her to ask. He doesn't understand, and thought you might tell Hinata because she's a girl. That's not totally it though. Ino was bugging us to ask you not even an hour ago, she was in tears because you apparently wouldn't talk to her about it and she thinks he's... coercing you." I rolled my eyes, tempted to bang my head off of the table in frustration.

"Those two should be poster children for the Sasuke fan-club, honestly. I am not being coerced, I'd be surprised if Kakashi was even capable of something like that! Not in terms of skill, obviously, but I mean really. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body, he wouldn't do that. Now, can I ask something? Why is it such a big deal? I'm a grown woman, I should be capable of deciding who I want to date without my supposed best friends jumping down my throat about it." I put one hand down on the table and started to tap my nails on it,waiting expectantly for an answer. The two women looked back at each other for a moment before turning back to me again, and Tenten cleared her throat audibly.

"Honestly, as long as you're happy and he's not abusing you or whatever, I don't care and I doubt Hinata does either. However, it was pretty much expected that you'd be getting together with Sasuke when you settled back in. He's been waiting here for you for the entire year or so since you brought him back, so when you ended up nearly immediately in the bed of your old sensei... well, it's a bit of a shock at first, that's all. Then there's the age difference, the whole 'sensei-student' relationship taboo, he's Konoha's designated bachelor, he's a known pervert, yadda yadda ya. I could keep going, but I don't think you really need me to." Again, I rolled my eyes.

"I just love how most of it revolves around him." Tenten nodded dismally, apparently catching onto my sarcasm.

"Well, you haven't really been around long enough to develop a bed reputation yet. You know, besides that one thing about the old pervert... and what everyone seems to remember about your temper and wicked strength... No, you're still pretty much under the radar, at least until the rest of the village catches wind of you two. You do realize that between the Sasuke fangirls and Kakashi's own fangirls, you're going to have the better part of the female population down your throat about this, right? I hope you're ready to deal with that, Sakura." I waved my hand in an unconcerned gesture. I had been a fangirl once, I could deal with them appropriately. It was kinda cool to know that Kakashi had them too, even if it wasn't particularly surprising. I mean, of course he's going to, he probably has a lot more than even Sasuke.

"Who started that rumor anyway? The one about me sleeping with Jiraiya?" Tenten scratched her cheek and looked at Hinata, who shook her head ion an unknowing gesture.

"It's been so long, I don't know anymore, actually. Why? It's not true, is it?" I shook my head, chewing my lip as I frowned slightly.

"What do you mean, 'It's been so long'? How long?" The brunette's brow furrowed as she looked away from me, and looking at Hinata won me no answers either.

"Since not long after you left... not even a year, I think." I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood in an effort to keep my temper back, mostly because I had nobody to direct it at. Possibly sensing this, Tenten continued quickly.

"Nobody really believed it, I mean, who would? We weren't more than sixteen or seventeen, there's no way we believed you'd ever let some ancient old pervert do anything like that to you!" I crossed my arms, barely succeeding at keeping my anger in check, my mood getting as black as the sky outside was starting to turn. _Looks like there's going to be a storm tonight. Hopefully it waits 'til I get home._

"Apparently somebody believed it, or it wouldn't still be circling around town, would it. Apparently Jiraiya himself never heard about it either, or I would have heard about it too and I would've dragged myself back here to strangle the instigator of such ridiculous slander." As I shoved back my temper into nonexistence, Hinata and Tenten both watched me in a barely disguised mix of apprehension and surprise. Kakashi still read his book, barely looking at me over it when he noticed that I might go off the deep end and a small, lighthearted smile crossing his features when he subsequently realized that I had more control over myself than that. I forced a smile before addressing my friends again.

"You two should probably be getting back, it looks like it's going to storm and I bet Naruto and Neji are getting worried about you two. Hinata. Could you please ask Naruto to drop the idea of Sasuke and I? It's not ever going to happen and he may listen to you more than he did to me. I've already told him I have no intention of dating or doing anything else with Sasuke, but he's stubborn and thinks he's always right." Hinata nodded sheepishly as both she and Tenten got up from their seats. Coming forward, the bolder of the two grabbed my hand and pulled me to a stand, dragging me away from the table. Confused, I would have asked what she was doing, but she preempted my question with one of her own, one that I didn't want to hear and apparently Hinata, who had followed us, didn't either.

"What's he like in bed? I want to know if that reputation of his hits the mark or if Anko's just a big loudmouth, so spill!" In a startlingly accurate mimicry of a tomato, Hinata's face heated to the point where you'd think that it was Naruto that had been asked about, yet I just giggled softly, shaking my head.

"Do you hear me asking about Neji? I'm not one to kiss and tell, Tenten." Of course, she wasn't one to give up that easily, she never had been. One glance back at the table revealed a smug smirk firmly plastered across Kakashi's face and it took every ounce of control I had not to let myself turn red. Apparently we weren't quite out of earshot and no doubt the smug bastard was just itching to hear what I'd say in response to the older girl's prodding.

"Oh come on Sakura, you should hear what's said about him! I'm just curious..." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest roughly, glaring up at the slightly taller woman.

"He has the better part of Jiraiya's works committed to memory. What do you think?" My voice came out as a low hiss, mostly because my concentration was now sharply divided between not blushing and not entertaining inappropriate fantasies that Tenten's questions were provoking. I subtly rubbed the back of my hand over my top lip to ensure that I was neither drooling nor bleeding and sighed softly in relief when I realized that I was doing neither. Tenten was starting to pout at me, clearly unhappy that I wasn't talking and Hinata looked both embarrassed and extremely relieved.

"You're no fun, you know I'd tell you anything you asked... At least tell us if he does it with his mask on?" I had to resist the abnormally strong urge to smack my own forehead and instead just glared at her incredulously.

"I'm only interested in my man, not yours. Frankly, I don't care if Neji likes to chain you to the bed wearing a red vinyl corset and hooker boots, I don't want to hear about it." Saying that, I felt marginally more calm while I watched both of my friends' jaws drop and turn beet red, apparently scandalized by my idea. Kakashi looked like he was about to choke on the tea Moegi had brought him, and the girl herself, who was standing less than ten feet from us, looked like she was about to faint. I smirked, realizing that my Icha Icha corruption might run a little deeper than most people could handle. Oh well, what did they think, that I was some blushing little girl still?

"Right... Uh... Guess we'll see you later then, Sakura. Have fun with your better half." I waved jovially at the pair as Tenten turned tail and hurriedly shoved a shellshocked Hinata out the door. Snickering behind my hand at my handiwork, I sauntered back over to the table I had been sharing with Kakashi but didn't sit down, watching in mild amusement as he attempted to keep a straight face.

"Almost done? We should get back before the rain starts, I left the bedroom window open and I'd rather not sleep on a wet mattress tonight." He kept his uncovered eye on me as he dogeared his page and closed his book, standing up with an odd look gracing his features. He left the payment for his meal on the table and followed me out, apparently a little off-put by the newfound bounce in my step as we exited and I twirled around in the staticky air that hung heavily under the darkening clouds above. I hated night storms, I always had a harder time sleeping through them, but I absolutely loved the prelude to a really big lightning storm, like this one was going to be. The thick heaviness of the electricity lurking in the air had always been such a cool feeling that I loved, even when I was little.

"You're energetic all of a sudden. Something to do with the... interesting conversation you were pulled into?" I snickered again, turning to face him and walking backwards while still ahead of him to keep pace.

"The looks on their faces were priceless at my mention of some ...unmentionable attire." I was still fighting to keep from laughing and he gave me another odd look.

"I heard that. Whatever floats your boat though, I suppose." I laughed, raising my hands to clasp behind my head as we walked.

"It was just an example that did what it was meant to do, scare her off of any further questioning. Personally, I'd probably be laughing too hard at seeing any guy in a red vinyl corset to possibly find it even remotely sexy, forget the boots." I watched him stop and his expression transmogrify from just odd to outright horrified and struggled not to laugh again as he probably reevaluated what I had really said in the cafe.

"...I think you just scarred me with the most horrible mental image I've ever imagined..." This time I didn't hold back the snickering as his eye squeezed shut in disgust and I twirled back around, walking while facing forward once again.

"Yeah, red isn't really Neji's color, is it? I imagine he'd probably be more of one to go for black, or maybe a light purple to match his eyes..." I squeaked as he darted up and clapped a hand over my mouth, shivering as he growled into my ear.

"Knock it off, Sakura." Swallowing the small lump that had made its way to my throat, I nodded hurriedly, all too aware of our proximity and the goosebumps breaking out over my skin because of it. Breaking away from him, I continued walking, casting a sidelong glance at him as I tried to keep my pulse from speeding up beyond normal.

"Don't be so touchy, I was only playing around." I huffed softly, clasping my hands in front of me as I averted my gaze slightly in irritation.

"I'm sure Neji won't like it if he ever hears about what you said to Tenten." I rolled my eyes.

"Somehow, I doubt she heard what I actually said. She probably heard the same thing you did, and if that's the case it's far more likely that Tenten will kill me for ever saying it and getting ideas into the poor guy's head." Because even though the idea of Tenten in the aforementioned outfit was far more appealing than Neji, I doubt she was the type to want to play dress up and be chained up. Ugh, who knew such an offhand comment would incite such reactions?

"Oh well, it was a dumb conversation anyway." I crossed my arms over my chest, walking normally now. Somehow, my good mood had deflated in a hurry, but my blush returned as his arm slid around my shoulders and my shoulder reverberated slightly with the chuckle he let out.

"I don't know, I don't think it was so bad..." I smacked his hand lightly as I rolled my eyes to the sky.

"Yeah, I should have known you'd like having that kind of reputation. Hate to tell you this, but I am not about to embellish it for you if that's what you were angling for. Who knows if there's even a grain of truth to it?" An electric shock shot down my spine as he sharply nipped my ear, causing me to lose whatever else I had been about to say. His voice low and husky at my ear caught me even more off-guard, and I couldn't stop the butterflies fluttering around my ribcage again.

"Well that'd be fun to find out, now wouldn't it?" _I just walked into that one, didn't I?_ Turning a brighter shade of pink and turning my face away from him into my shoulder, I felt myself tense up and I bit my lip to stop myself from looking as mortified as I felt.

"That wasn't an invitation, for starters, so you can stop it." I broke out into goosebumps when I was pulled into a sideways hug, his hand sliding down from my shoulder along my bare arm to rest on my waist.

"You have to relax and learn to take a joke, Sakura. I'm not expecting anything like that from you, that's not my right." _Doesn't stop you from getting me all hot and bothered now does it?_ _Wait, not his __right__? Does that mean he wants to, but can't?_ Ugh, why are men so difficult to understand?!

"Ah, sorry. Guess I'm just a bit on edge, that's all. Maybe I should just try and relax before bed, watch a movie or something. Haven't done that in a while..." It used to be a tradition for mom and I to kick back once in a while when we weren't on missions and watch all our favorite movies while cuddled together on the sofa, but having not been here, I missed out on that for the last few years.

Thinking about all the time we used to spend together before I left and how much I missed out on with her hurt, and badly too. I used to think that my parents' were invincible, it never once occurred to me before it happened that either of them wouldn't be home when I got back, that I'd come home to an abandoned house. Inwardly, I wondered if this was the way Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi had felt, having lost their parents at a young age, or even Itachi, who had been forced to spill the blood of his own family members.

It was depressing and painful to have a loved one's blood on your hands, even if I wasn't guilty of it to the same degree as Itachi had been. Our intentions and motives had been wholly different. He had been ordered to do it, to eliminate a threat to the village, while I had done it just to survive. I chose my own life over my father's, a choice that I never had the right to make. No life should have to be traded for another and no girl should ever have to learn that to her father, his own survival meant more to him than the lives of his wife and daughter combined. At least in his last moments he acknowledged me as a shinobi rather than just a wannabe, though that was small comfort.

"Sakura?" I snapped out of my thoughts to see Kakashi's hand waving languidly in front of my face as we stood on my front step, and it was raining already. _My bed is going to be soaked. Yay._ "You have the key, right?" I nodded and produced it from my pocket, peeling the thin skirt off of my legs, which were as soaked as the rest of me. I unlocked the door and went inside, kicking off my shoes and tossing the key onto the table while I pointed out the towels by the door to Kakashi, specifically meant for drying after this kind of weather. Once he took one I darted off in the direction of my room, immediately vaulting up onto the bed to shut and seal the window. The blankets made that squishy, wet sound as I stepped on them and I sighed softly. At the very least, it was confined to the side of the bed closest to the window and hadn't made it to the floor or any of the bags.

"I don't see why you were so worried. I had no intention of letting you spend the night alone anyway." Mentally I smacked myself as my cheeks tinged again, having immediately taken his statement in the most inappropriate way possible. Dragging my mind out of the gutter, I got down from the bed, stripped it and carried all the blankets with me to the laundry room to shove in the dryer. Barely inclining my head towards him as I started to empty my pockets and unbutton my dress, I gave him an appraising glance. He was as soaked as I was, obviously.

"Give me your clothes, I'll toss them in the dryer with mine." I barely caught the amused smirk that played acros his lips before he started undressing in the middle of the hallway. Turning red, I went and gave him a light shove in the direction of his room before he had even finished removing his sweater.

"Shameless! Go change and bring me your clothes!" Chuckling, he removed his sweater the rest of the way and took one glance at me before ruffling my wet hair, or at least attempting to.

"Who's calling me shameless? You're wandering around in your underwear, Sakura." I snorted, still pink enough to match said underwear. Well... the hearts on them, anyway.

"My underwear covers a lot more than yours does. Go get changed, Kakashi." He quirked an eyebrow at me, an odd smile on his face before he entered 'his' room and mostly shut the door.

"At least my underwear isn't transparent when wet." Feeling my face heat even more I took a look down at my chest. The camisole was clinging a bit, but you couldn't see through it.

"Neither is mine!" Okay, so it might have been a bit childish for me to be arguing for no real reason other than he was frustrating me, but that did not warrant the reaction I got from him. He came out and kissed me, again! Not a cute little peck either, a fierce, crushing kiss that literally left me breathless and backed up against the wall, though I still sensed some modicum of restraint involved. Grinning at me with that cute little eye crease not more than an inch or so from my face, he gave a little tug to the hem of my shirt, enough to pull it away from the skin. The only thing I found I was really able to do was glare at him and his less than innocent little smirk, because I still hadn't caught my breath enough to say anything, and I couldn't make myself move enough to deliver him the smack upside the head he deserved at this point.

"Take my word for it, they are." Seeing me regain my ability to move, he retreated into the bedroom fast enough that the angry fist I had aimed at his chest only collided with the door as it latched shut and I was left to listen to his irritating snickering with a numb left hand embedded with splinters while I fumed.

"You can be such a pain!" I was only responded by more infuriating chuckling from behind the cracked door as I stomped back to my own room, holding my bruised, bleeding and likely broken left hand in my right and cursing him with every insult I could think of in a low and barely coherent growl. He knew what he was doing and he was doing it purely for fun, damn it. Must be fun, being the one in control, completely unaffected when he had me practically falling to my knees from kisses that were just a game to him.

Once back in my room I shut the door quietly behind me and changed quickly into my plain button-down nightshirt and just a simple pair of white cotton panties. I didn't feel like searching for any of my newer sleepwear right now, this would be just fine for tonight. Running my fingers through my hair I decided that it didn't really need to be brushed, and most of the water had dripped away, so trying to dry it any more than it was would probably be pretty much fruitless. Still slightly angry, I cast out my chakra along the ground to sense where Kakashi was in the house. Still in his room. Changing still, maybe?

I left my room, carrying my wet clothes with me and tossing them in the dryer when I passed the laundry room on my way to my destination. Reaching it, I started to pick through the newest additions to my mother's movie collection. Between the two of us, we had only ever liked two types of movie, really. Gorey, gross, puke-your-guts-out horror films and the more subtle psychological horror/thriller movies. Personally, I preferred the gross to the psychotic, so I picked out a new one that my mother had clearly labeled as such and shut off all the lights, snuggling up comfortably under a soft blanket at the end of the couch.

It wasn't long after the movie had started and I had sprawled out along the length of the couch, my legs dangling over the arm and kicking out into open air that Kakashi decided to make an appearance, Icha Icha in hand and looking utterly normal, if you completely discounted the fact that he was wearing an old pair of my dad's blue pinstriped pajamas. Walking right past the armchair and completely disregarding it he stopped at the end of the couch, his legs directly in my line of sight.

"Mind if I sit here?" There was an odd note to his voice, an apologetic and quiet one that made me forget completely that I had ever been angry at him and I sat up, giving him space to sit beside me. Curling my legs up, I wrapped my arms around them and faced forward, my chin on my knees as I deviated my attention between watching my movie and the man next to me. As the first flash of lightning and crack of thunder rent the air, I noticed that he was not at all comfortable. He was overly tense, despite the lazy slouch he maintained, and his eyes were fixed in one place, firmly stuck to the side of my head. He wasn't really looking at me though, he was thinking.

"...Sorry." His gaze had refocused and I turned my own away, down to the floor. The pained an horribly acted screams coming from the television as a young couple were thrown into a pit of razor wire punctuated his statement and the effect was altogether eerie, to say the least.

"You don't have anything to apologize for, you were just having some fun. I should lighten up and stop taking it so personally, that's all." Which is true. Knowing that that it didn't mean anything, logically, I should be able to ignore the effects. I couldn't though, but it wasn't his fault. It was just something else I'd need to work on, to better perfect myself as a shinobi. Another skill I'd need to master, just like walking on water or throwing a kunai. I could already ignore some of my body's other limitations to an extent, like pushing myself past the brink of exhaustion or enduring more pain than I should rightfully be able to, so overcoming or at least suppressing the deep-seated attraction I felt towards him should be cake. Once I figured how.

"It still wasn't right of me to do that, I shouldn't have pushed you like that, and I'm sorry." I pulled my blanket tighter around my shoulders and blew a strand of hair out of my face, watching the floor light up as another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.

"I said not to be. What's done is done and if I'm not worrying about it, you certainly shouldn't be." I felt him push away the damp hair that was curtaining my face on that side and forced a smile as I looked back at him. His own gaze was critical and he was specifically watching me with his sharingan, probably to see if I was being truthful or not.

"So we're okay then?" I nodded and he shut his left eye again, apparently deciding that my body language matched my story. Fortunately, he seemed to have forgotten that I trained and traveled with the worst abuser of the sharingan this generation had ever known, so at one point I would have had to pick up on how to stop the most telltale signs of deceit and indicators of mood when I wanted to. Except for blushing, somehow I had never learned to stop that particular reaction, but then again I had rarely blushed at anything before coming back. It was only bothering me a bit now anyway, and only because it was something I couldn't really control, so I wasn't really lying anyway.

"Yup. In fact, I still expect a kiss goodnight when you tuck me in for bed." He obviously caught that I was kidding, whether from the bright grin I was sporting or the low giggles erupting from me, and he wrapped his closer arm around my blanketed shoulders, pulling me to his chest as he ruffled my now dry and thoroughly fluffed hair. I didn't mind cuddling into his chest like, despite the thoughts of his naked torso so kindly populating the images that made up the rush that was so like white noise at the back of my mind, always playing, always there. Sometimes the noise was louder than other times, like now when I was in close proximity with him, but it wasn't a real problem until I couldn't tune it out anymore, like while he was kissing me, or whispering in my ear sexily.

We watched the movie in relative silence, cuddled together comfortably one one side of the couch. At one point he made his way under the the blanket with me, the cream fabric wrapped around both of our shoulders as I watched the gruesome images on-screen through my fingers. That would have been right around the same time his arm moved from my shoulders to slide down around my waist, snuggling me closer and letting his fingertips rest on my leg, just below the hem of my nightshirt. Cue the white noise to get ever so slightly louder and more distracting.

Just for the sake of clarity, I'm going to say that I have never once thought of him as one to fidget or succumb to involuntary kinetic tics, even after watching him with the perception ninety-nine percent of people didn't have. He's a bit too laid-back for that, and his lackadaisical nature and obsession for Icha Icha would be the security blanket that more than made up for the unique quirks in body language and nervous habits that most people harbored and couldn't help. So when he started tracing his finger in lazy spirals on my hip and the top of my thigh along the pantyline, my first thought was that I was hallucinating, that maybe I had fallen asleep on him and was just dreaming the light, feathery touches. A discreet pinch to my wrist and the mild sting associated with it told me that wasn't the case, I was fully awake and aware of his movements.

My second thought was that his apology was not as sincere as it had sounded and he was teasing me again. I dismissed it quickly in favor of giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying that he really was just fidgeting, possibly a reaction to human contact outside of battle. It couldn't be something he was used to, so he may not know that he was doing it at all and the... side effects it was having on me were just the result of mixing overactive hormones, sexual frustration and the fact that I was a very contact-seeking person and hadn't had much of that at all since I left. Oh, wait.... that I already wanted and couldn't help entertaining less than appropriate fantasies about the man sitting next to me probably fit in there somewhere too. Maybe.

"Are you okay? You're fidgeting." I shifted my body so that my torso faced him more, with my legs curled up beside me and spilling out over the edge of the couch cushion, leaning with my head resting on his shoulder. Now he couldn't reach and had to settle for resting his hand on my fully-clothed waist.

"I'm a bit ticklish, I guess." The sidelong glance that he cast me I barely caught, but it didn't express anything saying that he believed me and neither did his voice when he spoke again.

"You're still doing it." I dragged my teeth across my lip, frowning as I sat up and retreated to the other end of the couch, my back against the the armrest and my legs curled up in front of me. I left no part of my body touching him and even left him the blanket, though now I was devoid of the warmth from both him and the soft off-white fabric.

"Now it shouldn't bother you." It did look like it bothered him though, his face adopting a troubled hint of a frown. Resting my head against the couch arm, I turned my attention back to the movie and tried to relax, like I was supposed to be doing.

"Sakura...?" The movie was almost over and because of certain distractions, I had missed maybe half of it. Not that I didn't already know how it ended, because I had seen enough of them to realize that they pretty much all end the same, but still.

"Hn?" Biting my lip, I tried to completely ignore the hand ghosting over my leg but not quite touching it. He was apparently undecided on whether or not I was mad and if it would be a good idea to try and get my attention through contact. With his hand that close though, I could still feel the heat he radiated outward and it was not helping me relax in the slightest.

"I'd rather talk to your face than the side of your head, if you don't mind. Is something the matter?" _Other than you being a natural tease, no._ I turned my head so that it was still resting on the arm and I was facing him, barely able to see his concern and confusion over my knees with my head tilted back like this.

"I'm fine, but the logical solution to my fidgeting bothering you was for me to move so that it can't bother you." His expression went at once from concerned to playful and I found myself staring at the ceiling in surprise when he caught my ankle and pulled it across his lap, laying me out flat across the couch cushions.

"I never said it bothered me, just that you were doing it." I sat up, bracing myself back on my hands when he didn't let go and pushing my nightshirt back down from where it had ridden up below my breasts.

"Why say anything then, if it wasn't bothering you?" He smiled, a cute, honest smile that made my insides turn to mush and my heart skip a beat. Or a few beats, I'm not quite sure. Hell, it might've stopped entirely for a moment and I wouldn't have been surprised.

"I was simply making an observation. You don't normally move quite that much." I scowled slightly in annoyance and tried to tug my foot out of his grip. He tugged back in playful retaliation and I was hit by an overwhelming sense of deja vu. _Not this again..._

"What do you expect? You were tickling me. Of course I wouldn't be able to stay still." I leaned forward and loosened his fingers from around my ankle before turning and planting both feet firmly on the floor and scooting back over to my side of the couch. It was as far away as I could get from him without retreating over to the chair, which was not all that comfortable, and staying out of immediate contact with him would probably be the best chance I had of not going completely insane until my body decided to stop being such a nuisance. If I wasn't so keen on keeping within Tsunade's good graces I probably would have told Kakashi to go spend the night at his own place so that I could spend some quality time with a certain book that I hadn't even had a chance to crack yet, but that wasn't going to happen. In fact, opening any Icha Icha novel right now would probably be the worst idea I could possibly come up with in this situation, right alongside hopping on his lap and kissing him senseless, which was another scenario playing out in my head that I was futilely attempting to halt.

"...Are you really okay, or am I going to have to drag you to the hospital under the pretense that you're having a fit so that Tsunade can have a look at you?" _Oh yeah, __that__ diagnosis will go over __really__ well._

"I'm not having a fit, Kakashi... I'm just having problems settling down for the night. You really aren't helping either." Giving me an apologetic look, he waved me back over to sit beside him. Stubbornly, I stayed put.

"Come back here. I'm not going to bite." I glared at him to convey my lack of amusement at his choice in words and apparently realizing exactly what he said, he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Okay, bad choice of words, I know. Look, I won't tickle you, I promise, just come sit with me." This guy was just getting harder and harder to understand as time went by, honestly. I seem to remember a time when he wouldn't let me sit so close to his clone, forget actually asking (practically begging) me to sit next to him. Still slightly wary, I nodded my head in tentative agreement.

"Alright, but give me a minute, I'll go put in another movie, this one's done." I got up off of the couch and took my time picking through the shelf of movies, this time selecting an old favorite of mine, one that was really gory and oftentimes torture-based. Hopefully the graphic imagery would keep my mind where it should be.

"What's this one about? The last one was the least believable thing I've ever seen, and I've seen some weird stuff. A space alien parasite that makes humans crave blood though? That's really disgusting, Sakura." I shook my head and rolled my eyes, hitting the play button and retreating back to the couch and his waiting arms.

"If you thought that one was bad, you should probably go to bed now and spare yourself this one. It's about a guy who's had a near-death experience and believes that humanity as a whole doesn't appreciate the life they're given. He sets out to change their perspectives one person at a time through kick-starting their survival instincts, to varying degrees of success. This entire series happens to be a favorite of mine, actually." While I did stay cuddled to him, I made sure to keep his arm around my shoulder or waist, not allowing it to go any lower. He was enough of a distraction just sitting there, I didn't need to make it any worse.

"How can you watch this stuff?" I snorted, giggles erupting in a torrent from me despite my best attempts to quash them.

"I put the video in, press the play button and then sit down to enjoy the fantastic and surprisingly accurate imagery." Of course this answer didn't exactly net me the most positive of responses and I rubbed my head to alleviate the sting from the hopefully playful tug on the chunk of hair anchored there.

"In all seriousness, don't you see enough of this as a result of our job? Do you really need to watch it at home too?" I crossed my arms over my chest and let out a soft huff.

"This is the stuff I was raised on, Kakashi. Besides, I'm a medic and a murderer, I've seen far worse than this that I've been able to testify isn't food coloring and wax dummies. Better to stick with the stuff I know I can handle right now because the only other movies here are psyche horror films and some of those truly freak me out. I do not need to watch any of those before bed, thank you." He just gave me an odd look that I would almost attribute to sympathy before gently squeezing my shoulders.

"You don't have any movies with happy endings? Or at least any with no death?" I stifled a laugh with one hand, earning me another troubled look from him.

"You never met my parents, did you? This was not a 'happy endings' sort of house, Kakashi. If you're looking for anything of that sort here, even a novel, you're going to be pretty disappointed. Even Icha Icha doesn't have any truly happy endings." He raised an eyebrow at me, possibly scrutinizing me, I just couldn't quite tell in the dim light.

"And here a few years ago I would have thought the only thing you hoped for were happy endings." I shrugged.

"I tried, once. I tried to be the same type of girl as Ino, at one point. Girly, romantic, flirty, the girl guys fawn all over... but at the end of the day, out of the public eye, I wasn't her, I was me. I liked gory movies and harder music. I despised the kunoichi classes that I was horribly failing. I read vampire novels and ghost stories when I was done all my homework. I had no real fashion sense or any idea how to put on make-up. I was a smaller, pink-haired version of my mother who couldn't stand her particular choice in literature and in all honesty, nothing much has changed. I just don't bother to hide it any more, that's all." Talking about the way things used to be wasn't all that comfortable, especially when it brought to light how tomboyish I had always been, but at least it was getting my mind off of the man next to me. Well, the sexually gravitated portion of my mind at least.

Until he did something like this, of course. Completely casually and without even the slightest hint that he knew how he was affecting me, he reached the hand that was on my waist up and pulled all the hair that was hanging down by my face over my shoulder, trailing his fingers oh so lightly under my jaw and around my neck. He looked so nonchalant but the path he traced seemed so deliberate... Was I wrong to be believing that he really didn't know what he was doing? His very nature was a mishmash of subtleties, one of the reasons he was such a great shinobi.

You may not be girly, but that's to be expected. You're a hard-working and talented kunoichi and in the end, don't you think that's worth more than being another Ino? We already have one too many of her, but if you try and give up on being yourself, there's nobody else who can take your place." I obviously wasn't thinking when I turned and hugged him, because two seconds of thought would've revealed that to be a very bad idea. Why the hell did he have to smell so damn good? Why hadn't I noticed that four out of the six buttons on his shirt weren't closed? Why the hell wasn't I backing off?!

"...Thanks. You saying so means a lot to me."Oh, that would be why. The arm holding me to him was kind of preventing me from moving away. He was even twisting the ends of my hair around his fingers, for whatever reason. Turning pink once again, I tried to find a distraction in my favorite movie, knowing even now that it wouldn't work very well.

"I never said it enough before you left, although it would have been true then too." His breath ruffling my hair and brushing past my ear sent me into an internal panic. _This is so unfair, why did he lean in so close and why is he practically whispering in my ear?! This is so unfair..._

"There were members of our team that needed your attention more than I did... I turned out all right in the end." It took some real effort to keep my voice and breathing nice and normal and to keep my attention on the movie, at which I was coming very close to completely failing. I almost didn't notice that my hands were balled into fists and holding on tightly to his shirt, but once I did and let go I was at a loss where to place them. Bare skin was an incredibly appealing option and there was no shortage of that where his shirt fell open, but I was already in deep trouble and the additional fuel for the fire was very much unneeded at the moment.

"You deserved my attention as much if not more than they did, but that didn't stop me from neglecting you, mostly because you were a girl." I hope he hadn't noticed that my breath caught when he brushed my hair back again, this time tracing a similarly deliberate-seeming path along my hairline and temple as he pushed the loose hair behind my ear. By now I was pointedly not looking him in the face, partly because at least the gory blood and carcasses decorating the television screen weren't going to make me blush or pass out from nerves, but also partly because of our proximity. We were so close together at the moment that if I turned, I'd likely be kissing him and that was a train of thought I needed to stop right now.

"You were there when I needed you the most and there wasn't anybody else I could talk to, Kakashi." He was lightly running his fingers through the length of my hair as much as he could from where his wrist rested on my shoulder, but just because he wasn't touching my skin didn't mean that the touches weren't sensual enough to be driving me insane. Actually, even just the gentle rise and fall of his chest under my arm was driving me crazy. I wanted to lean up and kiss him. I wanted to stop this teasing right here and now, consequences be damned. It was those consequences that stopped me however. Kissing a friend in our line of work was nothing, a surprising amount of missions became so much easier when two teammates appeared to be a couple, because for some reason nobody ever suspects the newlyweds. Anything farther than a kiss... that became dangerous. Once lines like that were crossed, friendships became ruined, particularly once feelings were involved on one side. I didn't want that to happen here.

"Why me, anyway? You ignored everybody that tried to talk to you on that bench, at least that's what I was told." I swallowed softly and felt my breath catch again as his voice changed slightly, taking on a lower note that literally made me feel like I was turning into jelly. If I had been standing I would have fallen because my legs would have been unable to support me. _This isn't fair.... Is he really so oblivious? _

"Everyone tried to talk to me. You just listened and that was what I needed most. Ever notice how I seem to attract a bunch of loudmouths as friends? When it's me that needs to vent, I just can't do that with them." I felt him tense up slightly as he shifted into a different sitting position and I let out a very relieved breath, using the moment to get a little space between us. Instead of sitting facing him with my arms around his mostly bare waist, I opted to sit facing almost completely forward, with my legs curled up beside me and my arms loosely crossed in my lap. This position was far less tempting thankfully, and I began to breathe easier once again.

"You let me talk too." I nodded, ignoring the hand that was once again playing with the ends of my hair. Well, trying to.

"You barely said anything though, at least until I was pretty much done with talking, then you might have jumped in with a relevant sentiment, but admit it, you mostly just sat with me and read while I did all of the talking." Needing something to occupy my mind, I pulled forward a chunk of hair that he had pushed over my ear and began to braid it, undoing it all when I got to the end only to start over again.

"I talked more than normal, didn't I?" Smiling a little, I shrugged a bit as his hand strayed back up to my shoulder, near the curve of my neck, effectively undoing all the calming down I had managed by distracting myself. _Damn it. _

"Funny, you seem to do that a lot now. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but nonetheless it's true." He chuckled softly and the low reverberations against my arm and shoulder were drawing my mind's eye back to his sculpted chest and abs. This was not going to work, sitting like this... Maybe I could say I was getting tired and go to bed? No, he wouldn't let me sleep alone, he already said so, and attempting to fall asleep pressed up against his chest with his breath on my neck and his leg curled around mine... Yeah, that was not going to happen...._Maybe if I ask really nicely he'll let me sleep alone tonight..._

"You grew up in such a way that I find it easier to talk to you now." I had to smile a bit, I just couldn't help myself.

"What part of how I matured makes it easier? The fact that my innocent little mind was corrupted by spending too much time with Jiraiya or the fact that now I'm just a cynical, skeptical, jaded shinobi like I should be?" I wasn't prepared for the quick little half hug I was pulled into, nor for his breath right against my neck when he spoke again.

"It all works together to make you who you are... Sakura, I-" Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the insistent and hurried banging at the door that caused both of our heads to snap up. Who would be coming to visit in the middle of a storm at nearly eight-thirty at night? Getting up off of the couch to go answer it, I was stopped only a couple of steps away when Kakashi grabbed my hand.

"Wait a second." I swallowed, incredibly aware of his warmth tracing a circle in my palm.

"You might want to go put your mask on. They wouldn't be here if it wasn't important and if it's important, they'll pick the lock to get in when I don't answer." He let go of me.

"Hn." It wasn't until I knew that he had left the room that I answered the door, catching the breath that I hadn't realized I had lost.

"Is Kakashi here? Tsunade-sama needs to see him right away." I stood back to let the drenched brunette inside, handing her a towel to dry off, which she took silently.

"He's here, Shizune. He just went to get dressed." She raised both eyebrows at me over the towel and I turned pink.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, he just wasn't wearing his mask, that's all." She looked me up and down and managed to reply in a tone that actually sounded even less sincere than Naruto would if he ever swore off ramen.

"Whatever you say, Sakura. Actually, it's kind of my night off and I came to give Kakashi the message so that I could come see you while he has his audience with Tsunade." I nodded, smiling softly.

"Alright, come on in then, make yourself comfortable. I suppose you're not here for a night of girl talk though, right?" She shook her head, still drying her hair.

"Let me dry off first, I don't want to get your furniture all wet. No, I didn't come here just to talk, you're right. Actually, I came because I'm interested in that poison you used on Sasuke during your exam. Something like that would be an incredible asset to me and my team if you're willing to divulge your secret." Shrugging, I turned to head to my room and get my kit.

"It's not like it's a particularly big secret. Give me a moment though, I'll go get you the recipe." Not entirely paying attention, I walked face first into a fully dressed Kakashi, who caught me to stop me from keeling over backwards onto the floor.

"A summons from Tsunade?" I nodded, standing up straight and backing a step away from him.

"She needs to see you apparently. For what, I don't know, but Shizune can probably fill you in." Hurrying around him, I went into my room and grabbed my kit before rummaging through the medical scrolls on my shelf. Finding the one I needed, a skinny blue one penned in my own hand, I turned and went back to the door, where Shizune was still trying to wring out her yukata, towel abandoned around her shoulders.

"... so I'm not exactly sure what she wants to see you for, I'm sorry, but she didn't tell me. I'll stay here with Sakura until you get back, don't worry."

"Hn. I wasn't worried." Hearing the tail end of their conversation, I placed my kit on the floor by the couch along with the scroll. Walking past Shizune, who wasn't paying attention to me in favor of continuing to dry off, I placed the lightest touches on Kakashi's bare arm, above his glove, to get his attention.

"Once I explain the drug to her and make a copy of the recipe, I'm going to head to bed, so you can just let yourself back in, okay?" He took a quick glance over my shoulder at Shizune before apparently deciding it was safe to pull down his mask for a moment. The kiss he gave me was sweet, gentle and about as innocent as anything to do with him could be, but it was still more than enough to make my toes curl and my hands bunch up into fists around handfuls of my nightshirt to keep me from doing something uncalled for. Like pinning him to the wall we were standing less than two feet from and calling his bluff.

"I want to ask you something when I get back. I won't be long, if you think you can stay awake." A little torn, I tried to shake my head, I just couldn't quite manage it under his slightly odd gaze. Not to say that he really looked much different than normal, there was just something I didn't recognize behind his gaze.

"Can't you ask me now?" He shook his head, his sole uncovered eye never leaving my face.

"It's complicated and I'd rather not discuss it in front of an audience." My gaze flitted back to Shizune before I pulled it back again and noticed that he had pulled his mask back into place.

"...It can't wait until morning, can it?" He smiled cutely before giving me a quick peck on the cheek.

"Carpe noctem, Sakura." _Carpe noctem?_ I had heard that somewhere before, or at least some variation of it. I was left to ponder it while he left, shutting the door behind him before I could quite see how bad the weather had become.

"Sakura?" Still thinking and not paying full attention to her, I wandered back over in the direction of the couch, kneeling down on the floor in front of my kit. I set aside the scroll, which contained the actual formula for the drug and the antiserum.

"I'm sure you've figured out what it does, or else you wouldn't be here to get the recipe from me. It doesn't stick well to metal by itself, but a neutral or slightly basic binding agent works well with it. The antiserum shouldn't be applied immediately, or the results can be fatal, you need to wait at least thirty minutes after administering the drug and even then it takes a few to start working." _Carpe noctem....carpe diem!_ Kimiko had always had a habit of saying that, it was like her motto, her words to live by. It meant 'seize the day' and pretty much summed up her entire moral code.

"Do you have any samples of them? Just to compare once I've made my own, to make sure I did things right. I'll return the originals once I've made my first batch and then I'll return the formula too." I found the syringe with the drug in it and held it over my shoulder for her to take while I continued poking through my kit for the antiserum. I could swear that I had a spare vial, but maybe I had only made one? I felt her take the drug from me as I continued to dig through my bag, my mind wandering slightly. _Carpe noctem... well, if carpe __diem__ means seize the __day__... well, noctem obviously means night, so.... seize the night? What the hell is __that__ supposed to mean?_

"I'm sorry Shizune. I can't seem to find any more antiserum, I must have only made the one dose and I gave that to Ino to snap Sasuke out of it after the fight. I'm so sorry." The rough jab in the curve of my shoulder and the distinct feeling of the muscle being flooded froze me, my blood running cold at the realization of what she had just done as I immediately lost control of my body.

"That's good. You won't need it anyway." _Sasuke you bastard you're a dead man when I get my hands on you again! _He caught the back of the collar of my shirt to keep me from falling forward, but the pressure that this placed on my windpipe was cutting off my breath. I couldn't say anything, I couldn't do anything, I hadn't even been this helpless when I was twelve, that's how utterly defenseless I was in his hands like this.

"Now, this will have to be a quick lesson, because he'll be back soon and I want him to find you. Hopefully you both learn something this time." He let me fall forward onto my medical bag, upending it and breaking some of the glass vials as they hit the floor and spilling their contents everywhere. One hand on my shoulder, he pushed me face down onto the floor, grinding the broken glass and the liquids they wee coated in into my chest and face. How many of the vials that broke contained toxins and drugs? He was going to kill me here, intentionally or not. There were probably too many poisons starting to infiltrate my bloodstream right now that there was only a very low chance of me surviving, especially if Kakashi didn't come back soon.

"Learn your lesson and maybe next time I'll be gentler with you. Not that I expect either my brother or Kakashi were, but maybe I'll at least let you participate, next time." _Oh god, please no..._The sting of a kunai slicing the skin under where the seam of my underpants would be was as good as telling me outright that killing him was not going to be anywhere near enough retribution for what he was about to do to me. He activated his sharingan and I felt the pain originating in my shoulder, as bad as it had been before it was sealed and spreading slowly over my skin as his hands wandered to the front of my shirt. He ripped it open and I saw through barely open eyes the buttons go flying in all directions.

_What the hell are you doing, Sasuke?_ If I could have screamed, I would have. Hell, if I had been able to cry I probably would have done it, the pain was so bad. He pulled me up and I barely had time to even register that before he had sunk his his teeth into my shoulder, raising the pain I was in to a nearly debilitating level. I distinctly heard him sucking at the bite with his teeth still in the wound and if I could have gotten sick, that certainly would have done it for me. He finally drew away, leaving it to bleed freely as he pulled me up flush with his body, his obvious arousal pressed into my tailbone as I sat on his legs. _You sick bastard..._

"However, if you forget this lesson, you won't be the only one I start hurting, Sakura. But, I know you'll listen to me now, because it would just kill you to know that it was your fault when your beloved got hurt, or worse..." _You underhanded son of a bitch, how dare you threaten me with his safety?! You're going to pay for this you psycho rat bastard!_ My breath was coming out in erratic sobs now, the pain causing my senses to fade and blur into one another, my vision especially. I was seeing just a sheen of solid blood now, but I didn't need to see to know exactly what he was doing. He sunk his teeth into my skin again, this time into y other shoulder and at the same time raised my hips enough to slam himself up into me. That wave of pain was the last thing I was able to feel properly, all his subsequent actions melting together in a chaotic whirlpool of cuts, scratches, bites and blood.

_Kakashi... it hurts so much... Please hurry up..._


	20. 19

_**GR's Note:** Yeah, totally realize I submitted this without a note. Silly me. Anyway, I'm getting ready to move shortly (Like, next weekend kind of shortly. :p) and so for the next couple weeks while we get everything disconnected and reconnected, there will likely be no updates of anything. Healing a Healer is also temporarily on hold until my tutor gets back from his little end of summer vacation thingy. Sorry, but no updates for anything until at least the twelfth or thirteenth of September. Until then, enjoy this chapter, thank you so much to everyone who reviews and gives me critique regularly and even sporadic reviews are nice, and I'll see you all when I get back! Kisses!_

- 19 -

"Tsunade-sama." The pigtailed blond turned around in her seat to face me, perched in the window of her office like I had been for the last ten or so minutes. I watched as the door shut behind the team of jounin I had been waiting for her to dismiss before she decided to respond.

"What the hell are you doing here? Sakura's in an extremely delicate state, you shouldn't be dragging her around in the rain like this." I frowned, not that she'd be able to tell anyway.

"It's a good thing she's not with me then, isn't it? Shizune said you sent her to get me, so what did you need me for?" _Make it quick, I'm not in the mood to lose my chance __again__._ Her eyes narrowed at me, lip curling in a disdainful grimace.

"I did no such thing, Shizune's supervising a surgery down in the hospital. What are you really doing here, and it had better be good Kakashi." Warning bells started to go off in my head and I sat up a little straighter on the window sill.

"You didn't send Shizune? You didn't need to see me at all?" She stood up from her chair, her gaze fixed on me angrily as she began to advance on me, pushing up the sleeve of her jacket with the hand that wasn't curled into a fist.

"You did not leave Sakura alone, did you? After I specifically warned you not to let her out of your sight?!" I shook my head, turning back out into the rain before I started out at full tilt, rushing back towards the house I had left far too long ago. Knowing what I did, I also knew that hoping for Sakura to be alive and well when I got back was stupid... Naruto-on-a-sugar-rush kind of stupid, but it didn't stop me from trying.

_I did something so much worse than leave her alone. I should have known better... I think I'm going to need to re-evaluate my stance on the whole 'revenge' thing..._

* * *

He left the door open when he left her and when I entered I was met with the very heavy smell of blood. Lots of blood, and sex too. It was an unmistakable scent, but under the circumstances I couldn't have thought of something I wanted to be identifying less than that. I could see her from the doorway, her sobbing breaths shaking her tattered frame as I felt the heavy weight of guilt descend over me. Her eyes, the only part of her body that she had control over, fixed straight to me as I approached her quickly, assessing the damage as I bundled her up in the only thing readily handy, the blanket on the couch we had been wrapped up together in earlier.

"It's alright Sakura, I'm taking you to Tsunade. You're going to be alright." It was hard to say it, because I knew it wasn't necessarily true. She was covered in bites and cute and had already lost a lot of blood, but she was laying in the wreckage of her medical bag, with glass everywhere and unknown liquids in varying hues spilled all over the floor, so who knew what might be in her system at the moment, besides the obvious. The paralysis inducing drug from Hana. It had been what he had come for and so it would have left her fully aware while he raped and mutilated her.

Once I had her wrapped up, I couldn't help but notice the irregular black marks that had spread out from her shoulder onto her chest, her neck and the entire left side of her face and I had to swallow the bile that was rising in my throat. She looked uncannily like Sasuke had when he first started utilizing his curse seal, only I knew that this wasn't making her stronger, it was likely causing her constant pain. She couldn't even do a thing about it, not even pass out because of the inherent properties of the drug in her system.

Lifting her as gently as I could to avoid aggravating any of her injuries, I was out the door and forming the seals to transport us instantly to the tower. Sakura would likely need Tsunade's expertise to stay alive and I wasn't going to let her die because Sasuke was getting reckless with his abuse and I had let down my guard. Tsunade would find out about the seal too and after that things would inevitably snowball until she found out everything. She would be mad of course, secrets like this weren't supposed to be kept right under the hokage's nose, but it didn't matter as long as Sakura lived. She didn't deserve this.

"Tsunade." I hopped in the window out of the rain and immediately shot a warning glare at the audience she was entertaining, a chuunin squad looking for a mission. I must not have looked like someone they wanted to be around at the moment because while Tsunade caught sight of me and immediately focused all her attention upon Sakura, the chuunins turned and ran out of the office, not so much as looking back. Tsunade was livid with me, which pretty much mirrored my own self-targeted anger at the moment.

"Damn it Kakashi, I told you not to leave her alone! You didn't think that her condition was the only reason, did you?! You, who preaches reading between the goddamn lines over everything else! Yumiko! Get in here!" I didn't say anything in my own defense because she was right, and I knew it. She shoved me roughly out of the way after I put down the blanketed bundle, the soft off-white fabric now pretty much just a wash of red in varying hues. She unwrapped her carefully while still doing everything in her power to heal as she went, her expression only growing darker the further she got. While I had already seen and absorbed the fact that Sasuke had taken advantage of her in the worst way possible, watching the older blond medic's face turn ashen as she took in the torn nightshirt, purpling bite marks scattered liberally over Sakura's shoulders and neck, ripped underpants and the various cuts, scratches and bruises crisscrossing her thighs and stomach drew me slightly out of the more panicked and worried state of mind I had been in and into a more wrathful one.

"Where's Sasuke?" Another young woman rushed into the room and started to help Tsunade without question or explanation. I recognized her as one of the on-site medics from Sakura's jounin exam, the dreamy expression she had been wearing gone and replaced with unrivaled concentration while she healed. Tsunade barely even acknowledged me while she worked besides directing at me an extremely rude gesture that told me I wasn't going to be getting an answer anytime soon. The time it took them to stabilize her to the best of their ability and resources gave me far too much time to contemplate exactly how many ways Sasuke could 'accidentally' meet his end and where I'd hide the body afterwards. True, it should be Sakura's right to decide what happened to him, but not only would she not be in any condition to deal with him herself, she was too compassionate to put him through the torture he deserved for this.

"...Kakashi." The blond had taken her hands away and rewrapped the blanket loosely around Sakura, apparently having done as much as she could for the moment. She waved the dark-haired girl out of the room with a brief set of instructions before turning back to me, her expression hard and unreadable.

"Take her to the hospital and bring her to the general injury ward. Find an empty room and wait for me there. If you happen to see Shizune, tell her that I will need her help, but do not speak to anyone else and keep her face and hair covered. I don't want anyone knowing that she's in the hospital or what for until she wakes up and I get some much needed answers. Get moving." She didn't seem so angry now, instead opting for a more distant and slightly regretful expression. I wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not, but not wanting to reawaken her famous temper, I picked Sakura up and departed without question, without hesitance and without a sound.

The hospital was not a difficult place to sneak into or around in, even looking as questionable as I undoubtedly did. I didn't see Shizune while on my way to the appropriate ward, but at least it wasn't difficult to find an empty room, especially at this time of night. This ward was usually reserved for the commonplace injuries that were easily and quickly tended to, so the rooms here were never really occupied. On the flip side of things though, injuries that would take an excessive amount of medic attention or ones that needed to be kept away from the eyes and ears of Konoha's excessively gossip-loving public were also kept here, due to the extra privacy some of the rooms provided. It was one of these that I singled out, having been detained here too many times not to know the difference and suspecting that Tsunade would want to avoid any scandal that this entire thing would cause.

Tsunade joined us in the room shortly, Shizune in tow as she locked the door behind them. The younger woman didn't seem particularly comfortable with the way I was scrutinizing her, but I had already seen her likeness once tonight and even though it hadn't actually been her, obviously, I didn't feel very inclined to trust her just yet. Sasuke had slipped right past me once and Sakura was suffering for it. I wasn't about to let it happen again.

"Put her down and help me unwrap her. Shizune, prepare a drip." The blond was unnaturally calm as I did as I was told and she cast the ruined blanket to the floor before she started to strip the remnants of Sakura's clothing off and replace it with the standard-issue blue hospital gown, one which covered exponentially more than her tattered nightshirt had been. I watched Shizune like a hawk as she inserted the tube into the back of Sakura's hand before deciding that Sasuke wouldn't be able to competently insert an IV, sharingan or not.

"Alright. Shizune, get to work on that glass. Kakashi, just sit where the kid can see you, I''m willing to bet that you're the only one keeping her calm right now. Once Shizune's done with her face, try and suppress that seal again." I didn't bother to say anything, sitting down in a chair I pulled up to the side of the bed where I would be in Sakura's line of sight. Of course, if Tsunade was willing to bet on something, that meant she was probably wrong. I wasn't the reason she had calmed down, she was probably just happy not being in the same room as Sasuke. Even so, I had to wonder just a bit and my hand wound itself in her hair, gently stroking it back away from her face while Shizune worked with a pair of tweezers and a small cloth soaked in antiseptic, carefully removing the fine shards of glass that had been ground into her cheek. Sakura's eyes no longer held the same desperate, pleading look as they had whe I found her and instead she looked markedly more at peace, her breathing having finally returned to a somewhat normal pace even though she was likely still in a lot of pain. How could she be so calm, almost content seeming, while in the state she was in?

When Shizune started to remove the glass fragments embedded in Sakura's chest, I did as Tsunade had instructed and started adding chakra to the seal. It shrank and receded back into her shoulder, only having broken free because Sasuke had put too much pressure on it for Sakura's own chakra to handle by itself. The seal required a balance of two different chakra signatures to work, so with Sakura as drained as she was earlier, being injected with the drug would have left her without enough energy to maintain the seal. Fortunately, it didn't require a set amount of either signature, so even though her body would reject it and push it out in time, flooding the seal with my chakra would at least work until she started regaining her own. As soon as I was finished and the seal was back to normal, her breathing slowed to a nearly lethargic pace and she looked... grateful, while Tsunade and Shizune both noticed the change immediately and looked up at us in alarm.

"...What kind of curse mark is that, Kakashi?" They both turned back to their tasks while I wound my fingers back into Sakura's hair, gently rubbing the pad of my thumb back and forth over the mark. It wasn't disappearing like it normally did, something that I found odd, but it could have been because of how long it had been active. It hadn't ever spread out like that that I had seen, not even the first time.

"Sasuke placed it on her, it causes her pain when he activates his sharingan." Sakura's eyes didn't change, so she obviously expected that I'd have to say something eventually. The secrets weren't helping anything with the turn things had taken, and there wasn't any reason to hide anymore.

"...When?" A glance cast at the blond reveled that she had moved closer to me, the bluish-green glow emanating from her palms mostly concentrated on Sakura's abdomen.

"He bit her on her birthday, but he couldn't activate it until the day we came to report in, probably because he couldn't find her." Her eyes narrowed, though she continued at her task with steady concentration. It was strange watching these two use their healing jutsu after even a few days of watching Sakura's improvised version, but then it could be that there was a certain elegance to Sakura's method. She was incredibly quick and precise, using thin streaks of chakra rather than the steady stream that was usually associated with the art and while you'd think it would make her tasks more difficult, she seemed to have no problems doing it just as efficiently.

"No wonder he was looking so hard for her. How often does he use it against her?" I shrugged, not completely sure myself as I moved my hand so that I was stroking her hair again.

"A lot. Probably ninety percent of the time he sees her, actually. They don't have a very friendly relationship." This apparently didn't surprise her very much.

"Describe it."

"They each seek to prove their dominance over the other, usually with Sakura winning. Sasuke does it because in his mind he belongs to her and she does it in an effort to prove that she doesn't. She's passive, he's aggressive." This apparently did surprise her, one eyebrow quirking as I mentioned that Sakura was more often the victor between the two.

"So this relationship of yours... it's not real, is it? It was something staged to get him to back off." _Perceptive. Well, she isn't the hokage for no reason_. Taking a look at Sakura, I figured it was better to tell the truth and regretfully I nodded. I had hoped to change that tonight, but that wasn't happening now.

"That's right." She nodded, though she was frowning heavily, her brows furrowed deeply. Shizune had finished with the glass and without any instruction had begun to clean and bandage the bites closest to her.

"So, were you two actually sleeping together or not?"

"Sleeping, yes. Anything else, no." _Unfortunately_. Hearing this, her lips pressed tightly together in a line before she spoke again.

"She wasn't a virgin before this, was she? Or did she even tell you? I can tell that she trusts you more than even Jiraiya, so if anyone would know, you would."

"...She said she was and I don't think she was lying." Even while she slumped forward, head in her hands as a muttered curse passed her lips, I understood her anger and frustration. I had seen the effects of rape on the mental stability of more experienced kunoichi, but who knew how traumatized she'd be after her first experience of the kind was not only rough and nonconsensual, but with a man she couldn't stand? It wasn't uncommon for a kunoichi to have to lose it on a mission, for the sake of completing the objective, so that made this even worse. In her own home, her own village, after finally returning from six years on her own where she had credibly protected herself from exactly this, probably more than once, she had been violently wrested from the last bit of innocence that she had no devotedly guarded. She would probably never want to be touched again, intimately or otherwise.

"Alright, she's fine for now. There's something in her system that I can't identify, but I'm confidant that she'll survive until she comes to and can tell us herself. Shizune, bandage her up and stay to keep an eye on her. Let me know the instant that drug wears off and she can speak coherently, I'll be in your office. Kakashi, come with me." I didn't really want to, preferring to stay here over the idea of being yelled at for at least another hour and a half, but her tone was commanding and left no room for argument. Untangling my fingers from Sakura's bloody pink locks, I bent down near her long enough to promise that I wasn't going anywhere before getting up from my chair and following Tsunade. She locked the door again and led the way to a small office in the ward, locking us in and telling me to sit before she took the seat on the other side of a paper laden desk.

"I'm going to give you one more chance at this mission, Kakashi, but this time since she's not here I'll give you the reasons for it as well. I'm not really blaming you for what happened, because we both know that Sasuke's gotten to be a clever little bastard who's about as manipulative as he is aggressive." She rested forward on her elbows, her fingers laced under her chin as I listened in silence. She wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know, having been his appointed mission partner while he became rehabilitated to the village. Well, not blaming me was surprising, because I certainly blamed me. I should have seen right through his henge, but being so used to being unable to use jutsus in Sakura's house, I had barely registered the gap near her front door, where there was no seal to prevent weaker jutsus. The field was still strong enough there that you couldn't teleport, but something as basic as as henge or a regular bunshin could undoubtedly be used there. No wonder he had spent so long drying, he didn't want the jutsu to slip if he stepped out of the comfort zone.

"I think I know why he's acting like this. I might be wrong, but I don't think so, not after the last couple of days. See, he can't get into the sealed building in the Uchiha compound where all the oldest and most important documents are kept, nor can he destroy it and it pisses him off. Legitimately, only the clan leader can bypass the seal or, if there hasn't been an invested clan leader yet, the oldest living person with Uchiha blood that hasn't officially given up their claim." I knew what she was getting at and I didn't particularly like it.

"Sakura." She nodded.

"That's what it looks like. I was going to tell her when she came back to me for that check up and I'd have a good amount of time to talk to her, because I didn't think Sasuke would figure it out and get to her before he left on his mission. It looks like Itachi left her more than his bloodline, he left her the entire clan." Not surprising, the man always did have an enigmatic way of thinking, and if he did have feelings for her... it could be his way of leaving her a part of himself.

"So you think he's trying to bully her into doing what he wants and opening the seal? One problem. He was like this before any of us even knew that Itachi had done this to her." She shook her head.

"Not necessarily. Just because she doesn't remember and didn't consciously activate them doesn't mean they never showed themselves in the past. Maybe during one of their fights, or even during her fight with Itachi himself and if they did, that means he may have known what was going on before even she did." That was true enough, although it was a grim thought and more than a little far-fetched.

"So what happens now? We have to assume he knows and that it's the reason for his behavior, so what do we do about it?" She sighed, shoulders slumping slightly.

"There isn't much we can do. Clan disputes are generally kept within the confines of the clan, so unless she tells me to do something about him, he's going to get away with it. The elders will make sure of it. Being the clan matriarch though, it's fully within her rights to do whatever she likes with him, aside from outright killing him or impeding his ability to have children. Normally, she could do that too, but due to them being the last two, again, the elders would step in and Sasuke's got them wrapped around his god damned finger." _Who cares, he deserves a lot worse than death. I wonder how hard it will be to convince Sakura to hand Sasuke over to Ibiki and I for a few days?_ He'd be begging for death after that.

"So the decision's being left up to her? What if she's too far gone and incapable of making that decision?" I hoped that wouldn't be the case. I didn't want it proven that everyone I ended up caring for died or left me prematurely. Especially not her. She was too special, too important... she had so much potential and she'd been trying her hardest to be as strong as she could, but that wasn't even it. Her devotion and completely unconditional feelings toward the same man for so long... she would undoubtedly make him happy, if she ever got the chance to tell him how she felt. I had failed to keep her safe, and while I had been torn between helping her and trying to work things in my favor, I just didn't deserve that chance.

"If the psyche exam she takes reveals that she can't reliably make that decision, an emergency session of the council will be called and it will be put to a vote. ... I haven't told her about that yet either, although I was planning on doing so at the same time I told her about her new status... She'll be representing both the Haruno clan and the Uchiha, so I wonder how she'll handle all the extra responsibility?" I shrugged. While there might be a good deal of responsibilities associated with being a clan leader, I could honestly say that council meetings would be the least of her worries.

"Being a representative in the council isn't a responsibility, it's a chore. She'll probably see it as a waste of time." Her eyes narrowed and flitted towards my face, obviously not very happy.

"Like you? Hopefully that's not another habit of yours she picks up, we don't need another person skipping every session to go hide and read porn."

"Romance novels." It was an automatic response, and one that usually never failed to get a rise out of the blond. Usually. Now, she just looked thoughtful.

"Hm... Speaking of romance, what has she told you about her interactions with Itachi? I know she wasn't telling me the truth in my office earlier, or if she was it was far from all of it." _No point lying. Well..._

"She hasn't told me very much about that at all, I'm afraid I can't help you. You'll have to ask her yourself." The quirked eyebrow above an amused gaze said volumes about what she thought of my statement. I wasn't lying... technically.

"Sure she hasn't. It won't leave this room, if you're worried about her reaction to you telling all her secrets." _Yeah, it won't leave this room. Until you get your hands on a jug of sake._ I shook my head.

"Ask her yourself, she's told me next to nothing." She just rolled her eyes at me, blowing a tuft of blond hair out of her face.

"You're a liar, Kakashi. What exactly do you think you're protecting here? I'm not sure what you think will happen to her, but I can guarantee that it won't be anything bad."

"Other than potentially assuring that she never trusts me again? For the little that I do know, that's far too steep a price to be paying." Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized me, searching the visible portion of my face for anything that she could possibly use.

"You know she won't tell me anything. At least enlighten me on what she has told you, assuming that you're telling the truth in the first place, which I doubt. She trusts you more than anyone, Kakashi. If she told anyone, she told you." _Again with pointing out that she trusts me. I know, alright? I want it to stay that way. _A knock at the door before I heard keys jingling in the lock and the knob turning interrupted us and served as the only introduction Shizune gave.

"She's awake, Tsunade-sama, but... Jiraiya somehow caught wind that she was here and wants to be allowed to see her. She asked to be allowed, but I need your permission first." Tsunade held up a hand as I started to rise, indicating for me to sit back down.

"She asked to be allowed a visitor? What's she like, emotionally speaking?" Shizune never entered the cramped office, instead opting to speak from behind the half-open door, looking fairly nervous.

"She's acting as if nothing happened. No signs of trauma whatsoever, it's slightly creepy how collected she is. She's already tried to pry a seal off of the window and escape once and no matter what I try she won't stay in bed." If the situation wasn't so serious, I might have laughed. The look Tsunade was aiming at me, however, did not convey amusement by any stretch of the imagination, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Allow it. If she requests that they be left alone, comply but stay close by. I'll be along shortly to do a preliminary evaluation. Obviously, don't let her leave and if you get a chance, have an extra cot sent to the room." Her eyes were firmly fixed on me as she mentioned the cot and I inwardly groaned. Not that I didn't want to spend time with Sakura, but did it really have to be here?

"Of course, Tsunade-sama. You may want to reinforce those seals when you do her evaluation, as well." As the door shut, the blond started openly glaring at me as she crossed her arms over her chest Why, I really had no clue.

"I don't know how you managed to corrupt that poor girl so badly, she hasn't even been her for six years! She must idolize you, for some reason I can't fathom in the slightest. She's turning into a little carbon copy of you, for crying out loud! Next thing you know she'll be sitting vigil at the memorial stone too!" I honestly didn't know what to say to this little rant, mostly because she was seeing things that weren't there. Sakura read Icha Icha because she spent too much time around Jiraiya, although I might have been a bad influence when she was younger. She was never intentionally late like I was, her sharingan were a big coincidence and she didn't spend any time at the memorial. Admittedly, I hadn't done that much since she came back either, but maybe she was just a bad influence on me. And idolizing me? She didn't hold an ounce of respect for me when she was younger, just like her male teammates.

"She's not like me just because she enjoys Jiraiya's particular brand of literary genius and feels locked up while in the confines of a hospital-" She held up a hand in an exasperated gesture, stopping me.

"That's not it, Kakashi. Have you stepped back to take a look at her at all since she returned? If she were wearing a mask she'd be you!" _Well, she may have been through her share of problems and she may be a little less social than she used to be, but she still isn't anywhere near what you're inferring. _

"I can't say I see where you're getting this from, Tsunade-sama. You're jumping to conclusions, that's all. As for her involvement with Itachi, she's only told me that they fought after Sasuke was incapacitated. That's it." She was obviously aggravated at me now and it set me on edge, ready to dodge the glass snowglobe that Shizune used as a paperweight if necessary.

"Dodging the subject, not surprising. Alright, that's enough for now, I'm getting irritated just talking to you. I shouldn't need to say it but you're staying to keep an eye on Sakura tonight. Come on." She got up and circled around the desk, opening the door more roughly than was probably necessary as I got up and followed a safe distance behind her. When we got to Sakura's room, Shizune was sitting cross-legged on a chair outside the door, her head back against the wall as she concentrated. She seemed to be listening to the conversation being held on the other side of the door.

"He's not helping her escape, is he?" Shizune shook her head.

"He wrote her a book and they were discussing it rather enthusiastically." Her eyes opened and she caught sight of me before she turned an amazing shade of red and turned away. _Well, the rest of __Team 7 was in her book... Oh please tell me he didn't stick me in a compromising position with one of the boys..._ No wonder she didn't want me reading it. I think it's time to gouge out my mind's eye...

"What are they talking about now?" Shizune turned even redder.

"Um... apparently Sakura's developed a taste for the ANBU uniform..." Tsunade covered her mouth to stifle a laugh and moved to press an ear against the door. Interested myself, I took a seat on the other side of the door as the two women fell silent.

_"I dunno, it feels kinda weird. I've never done this before."_

_"He'll go crazy over it, I swear."_

_"...you say that as if I'll actually get a chance to use it on him. Thanks, you're so compassionate, Jiraiya-sama." _Wow, what the hell were they doing?

_"You mean you haven't said anything to him yet?"_

_"...No."_

_"I thought you came back to tell him?"_

_"Oh, shut up. It's not that simple."_

_"What's not that simple? I'd say pining over the same guy for... what, almost seven years? I'd say that you should just tell him and get it over with." Knock it off, old man. _Tsunade looked at me, mouthing a quick inquiry at me. The only reply I gave her was a noncommittal grunt. I knew even less about this than I did about Itachi.

_"...That's pretty hypocritical coming from one who's been chasing the same woman for the last forty years at least and still can't bring himself to admit that she's more than a nice piece of tail to him." _Tsunade flushed slightly, while Shizune giggled at her_. _

_"That's different. I told her and was rejected. Repeatedly. Much like you did to Naruto, in fact." _Inwardly I winced. Coming from Tsunade those kind of beatings couldn't have been fun. The blond was looking almost remorsefully at the door as the blush faded_. _

_"Did you ever tell her what she actually means to you rather than just trying to get her into bed? You might get farther with that approach, you know."_

_"...Who's the romance writer here, huh? Besides, this isn't about me, it's about you."_

_"I told you, not happening. Sasuke's already using him to threaten me, I'm not going to intentionally put him in harm's way!" _Tsunade looked at me questioningly again and I just shrugged. I didn't know any more than she did_. _

_"He's not an elite for nothing, Sakura. I'm sure he can take care of himself." _An elite, huh... so he's a jounin with the capabilities of ANBU. Not many of those around.._._

_"...I know. He could probably do a better job of mopping the floor with that prick than I do, but only if they fight on equal standing to one another! What if something like tonight happens again, huh? I... I don't think I could stand to actually lose him..." _I sighed. He really does have her wrapped around his finger, doesn't he? So, who's strong enough to wipe the floor with an Uchiha?

_"Listen, he's going to be targeted if you don't give in to Sasuke's every whim anyway, whether you break up with him or not." _...What?

_"It wouldn't even be a real break up, because it's not a real relationship." _I couldn't believe what I was hearing._ You've got to be kidding me..._

_"Really? Sure looked real to me." _How the hell did I miss that?

_"What are these? H-hey! What were you doing, stalking us?!" _She was always so eager to spend time with me...

_"Research. You can keep those, they're just the roughs, but look. You two look so... cute." _She told me things she'd never tell anyone else and even Tsunade acknowledged that she trusted me the most.._._

_"It was an act, to keep Sasuke off my back and it didn't work. He'll understand why it has to stop, he doesn't have those kind of feelings for me." You can't honestly think that, Sakura... _Both women were now glaring at me as they listened, looking completely murderous. I couldn't say anything, in mt own defense or otherwise.

_"I swear, I'm going to disown you as my student, Sakura. Put those kunoichi skills to use and make him like you! I know you have it in you, who knows why you haven't just jumped him already. It isn't like you've had any lack of opportunity, you've been sleeping next to him, haven't you?" _Shut up old man, before Tsunade gets it in her mind to murder me.

_"I'm not you, I don't sleep with someone before I'm sure about their feelings. Life doesn't work out like Icha Icha and I am not about to become a one-night stand or a week-long fling, Jiraiya." _Good, because once I'm allowed back in that room again, you're mine and I am never letting go of you.

_"So you're just going to let it go? Since when did you start giving up so easily?" _No way in hell she's getting rid of me now, I don't care if the entire remnants of Akatsuki want to tear us apart_._

_"Since Sasuke wised up and realized that this is the only way he'll ever get anything out of me. I told you, I don't think I could handle it if Sasuke hurt him and it was my fault. I shouldn't have dragged him into the middle of this..." _Yes, yes you should have. Sakura.._._

_"Sasuke just assaulted the hokage's apprentice right under her nose. I think it's safe to say that he's going to jail for a long time, Sakura." _Not likely.

_"Sasuke is the last member of the most powerful clan in Konoha. The elders won't let him rot in jail, the worst he'll get is a slap on the wrist and maybe a couple weeks under house arrest." _

_"Wow, you have a lot of faith in our justice system, don't you?"_

_"I lost faith in our justice system the moment my father managed to escape the detention center and proceeded to brutally murder my mother before trying to slash my throat." _Haruno Keiji. Sakura had been wrong, I had met her parents. Her father had finally snapped after being ANBU for three years and slaughtered his team, landing him in the detention center. He escaped and two ANBU cells were sent after him, Sakura's mother heading one of them. Neither squad came back and Keiji escaped the country. He was dragged back and pronounced dead on arrival two months later, although I don't remember who the shinobi that turned in the body was. Maybe Sakura... if he tried to kill her, maybe she had to... Wow, it really was a miracle the girl wasn't more messed up in the head_._

_"Still, do you honestly believe Hime will allow him to walk free after what you went through?"_

_"You assume that she'll have a say. They'll overrule her, you know that as well as I do and we're going to talk around this in a circle, so let's just drop it. Talk about something else until she gets here with Kakashi." _Tsunade raised her hand and knocked on the door, alerting the two inside of her presence there. She was answered and told to enter, moments before Jiraiya exited. He took one look at Shizune and one at me before making sure the door was closed and bursting into laughter.

"So, how long were you listening?" Shizune coughed gently into her hand and I held my normal deadpan expression, regaining whatever composure I had lost from earlier revelations.

"The entire time..."

"...Since about the time she said whatever you were teaching her felt weird." Jiraiya took a seat, grinning widely.

"That's too bad, you missed all her choice comments about how you look in black and white." Shizune turned pink again and stifled a laugh with her hand, turning away from me to hide it.

"Hn." What do you say to something like that? Especially when the girl in question has apparently had a crush on you since she was fourteen?

"Actually, you missed a lot of comments about you. She was getting pretty mushy before you showed." Shizune was nodding but still not looking at me, Jiraiya looked like he was having fun doing this and I was doing my best to maintain my own outward expression and not go breaking into Sakura's room to go talk to her myself. This was torture, being caught out here.

"I'm flattered. Wasn't this a private conversation? What are you doing discussing it with me? I'm sure she won't be happy once she finds out." He shrugged.

"She's been threatening my life one a regular basis since I found out about this little crush of hers. I'm not really worried, she wouldn't really hurt me." _True, because that would impede Icha Icha from hitting shelves... _

"You're pretty confident about that." He only laughed.

"Whether or not she does anything to me will depend entirely on how you react to what you heard." _Well, she's not in any condition to respond well to kissing her senseless, so.._.

"Hn." His expression turned serious.

"Whatever you do, don't hurt her. If you have feelings for her, tell her sooner rather than later and if you don't, don't lead her on." _I never led her on... I think..._

"You sound more like her father than her actual father." His expression didn't change, still completely serious.

"Somebody needs to be looking out for her, because apparently she spends too much time looking out for everyone else. I'm being serious, Kakashi. Be her friend or be her lover, but don't let that line blur. You're too important to her, for some reason." _Wow, is there __anyone__ other than Sakura who thinks I have good qualities?_

"I'll keep it in mind." _I'll be there for her, don't worry about that, old man. _

"Good. So, how'd you like the book I told her to give you? Not my best work to date, but I reserve that title for Sakura's personal novels." _Attention span of a humming bird_. I just shrugged.

"Haven't finished it yet." His expression turned to a mix of shock and amusement, one eyebrow raised.

"Since when does it take you two weeks to finish one of my novels? Unless... your mind's been elsewhere?" His lips curled into a devious smile that I didn't really like.

"I guess I don't blame you, considering the sweet little vixen you've been sleeping with. That's the stuff bestsellers come from, my friend." Indeed.

"She specifically told me you've dubbed her 'unsexy', and she's taken that to heart. Why the change in attitude?" He waved a hand at me dismissively.

"I only did that so it couldn't be said that I ever made a move on her or did anything inappropriate. Actually, before I saw her in that green number for her birthday, I would have called her 'cute' rather than 'sexy', but man, did she look good. Mile-long legs, that tight little a-" The senbon flying past his ear and lodging itself in the wall behind him effectively stopped him from continuing, something I could do just fine on my own.

"She's not a piece of meat, knock it off." Shizune was glaring openly at the older man, while inwardly I was doing the same. He had started my thoughts roaming back towards her naked skin, the tiny teases she gave without realizing and the boldness she displayed parading around nude or almost so. Not the best place to be resting my thoughts right now.

_"... and so we'll go over some ground rules, alright?"_

_"Yeah, sure." _The silence was allowing us to hear the conversation inside the room fairly clearly again.

_"Number one, I'm going to drain your chakra, but you already knew that."_

_"... If I was suicidal, I'd have done something about it by now, Shishou."_

_"I know that, but it's standard procedure. It'll only be until I can give you a more thorough psyche exam, alright?"_

_"Yeah, fine."_

_"Number two, obviously you're not going to be left alone. Kakashi will be here to keep an eye on you."_

_"... I gathered."_

_"Wow, you sound so enthused. I figured you'd be happy."_

_"It wouldn't matter who you had staying with me."_

_"Uh-huh. Lastly, no training, no exerting yourself in any way and especially no sex."_

_"...Didn't I hear Kakashi tell you that this relationship was staged and that we weren't doing anything like that?"_

_"I know, I know, I'm just pointing out that it looks like Sasuke wrapped himself in barbed wire before he did this and that you're simply in no condition to be engaging in sexual activities, that's all. That includes self entertainment, by the way."_

_"Thanks, I think I got the picture."_

_"We'll decide on everything else later, so until then... just... rest up, okay?"_

_"...Are you sure I can't go home? Really, I'm fine."_

_"No! Absolutely not, you aren't leaving this room at least until he returns and we decide on the next step. You have a lot to think about in the meantime, so I'll leave you for the night."_

_"Goodnight, Shishou. I'm sorry I've kept you up so late, you must be tired."_

_"...You should be worrying about yourself and let everyone else do the same. You don't take care of yourself enough. Goodnight, Sakura." _The door opened and out came Tsunade, carrying a large silver tray covered in sharp objects. _Of course, keep them away from the possibly suicidal_. She looked pointedly at me.

"I'm locking the door behind you. If you need something, press the call button behind the bed, Shizune or I will answer. I'll be back in the morning so that you can leave, go get clothes for the two of you, books, whatever. Don't count on leaving for good for at least three days though. Lights out in twenty minutes, goodnight Kakashi." I nodded before she finished in a much lower voice, one that Sakura would undoubtedly not hear, even with us standing in the doorway.

"She's hiding how much damage has been done, not physically but mentally. Either she's seeing it as a weakness and trying to suppress it and the memory completely, or more likely she's just not quite... she's not comfortable opening up to me." She tapped her nails on the door frame, casting a glance back into the room.

"You want me to let you know if... what? If she displays signs that she's affected or if she doesn't?" She looked at me evenly, not dropping her gaze.

"Use your best judgment." She stepped out of the doorway to allow me entrance and I stepped in before the door was shut and locked behind me. There was no window in the door to let in light from the hallway and apparently Sakura had already shut the room lights. The only reason I could see her at all was because by now the moon had come out and was shining in through a window left open for the breeze.

Her transformation from the moment she saw me to the moment she realized that we were alone in the room was nearly instantaneous. She had been sitting straight up, eyes trained on the door and watching like a hawk right up until it latched shut behind me, at which point she turned and flopped out onto her stomach flat out on the bed, face buried in a pillow with both arms crossed under it. She did not look like she wanted to talk. Silent, I crossed the room to the cot that had been brought in and set up and sat down on the edge of it, one eye on her the entire time. When she finally said something, her voice was muffled and she never removed her face from the pillow.

"I'm not going to bite." _Interesting choice of words_.

"I didn't think you'd want to talk, you're probably tired." She turned her head enough to look at me and I could see the square padding taped over her cheek and the darker color of the bruising around it. Her lip had been split and it looked like she was pouting, although that probably wasn't the case.

"I'm so jittery right now that I couldn't sleep if I wanted to. Now, are you coming over her or am I going over there?" Not needing another prompt, I got up and walked the two or three steps to her bed and sat down on the edge, careful to make sure she had ample room and that I wasn't touching her. She'd be less likely to freak out if she were the one to initiate contact for a while.

"What did you want to talk to me about? We're alone and you have until this wears off before I'm able to fall asleep, so spill." She had rolled over a little onto her side and propped herself up on one arm to face me, but she was suddenly extremely interested in her arm and the bandages it was swathed in. I was now being given a good view of the various gauze pads and bandages that were scattered liberally over her neck, shoulders and chest where they were showing over the hospital gown's open neck.

"It can wait. How are you feeling?" She regarded me out of the corner of her eye as she started picking at the edge of a piece of medical tape, the one fastening the IV to her hand.

"Frustrated, jittery, drugged and murderous. You?" She was immediately getting defensive, not a good sign.

"Sakura, I'm not trying to put you on edge or on the defensive, I just want to talk to you." She sighed, flopping over onto her back with her fingers buried in her hair and clawed into her scalp, obscuring my view of her face but granting me a clear view of her legs, covered from the knees up in bandages.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm just irritated because I've been asked that same question three times already and now I just want to throw something. Not at you! I mean, just in general." I nodded, watching her constant minuscule movements. She was really unable to stay still, and I couldn't help but wonder what was causing it.

"It's alright. That you're speaking to me at all is pretty much a miracle, considering what happened." She sat up, looking at me in mild curiosity while she played with the hem of her gown.

"How do you figure?" I raised an eyebrow at her and she started playing with her hair, blushing. Well, now at least it was a lot easier to see why she blushed so often. Seriously, how did I not catch it?

"Well, this is mostly my fault. I really should have seen through the jutsu and I shouldn't have left you alone with him." She shook her head, still playing with her hair.

"No, I brought this down on myself. I should've known better than to involve you in my problems in the first place. Now, he's... he's threatening to use your safety as leverage against me, or rather, your continued safety." She was biting her lip now, not looking at me as she wove the strands of her hair together.

"It's alright, he won't be able to do much. I may be old, but he's still no match for me." She frowned, running her hands through her hair to untangle it.

"You're not old, Kakashi. Here, stay still for a second." She leaned towards me and reached up to pull down my mask, wincing as her fingers grazed my cheek and she fell back, her arm dropping. Gently, she rubbed her shoulder, flexing her fist gently as she did so.

"If you wanted it down that badly, you could have just asked. You didn't need to hurt yourself. Is your shoulder okay?" She nodded, still rubbing it gently.

"It's fine, it's just... all the bites... they make it kinda hard to move a lot, that's all. Anyway, it's kind of weird talking to you with your mask up when we're alone, but I guess I shouldn't be getting used to it, huh?" Well, she did initiate some contact, so at least she wasn't shying away from it completely. I smiled at her, causing her cheeks to darken again before she ducked behind her curtain of hair to hide it.

"I don't mind." She stopped all her twitchy fidgeting to sit stock still for a moment.

"Huh?" I couldn't help but smile again.

"I said I don't mind if you get used to seeing my face." She started playing with her hair again, still hiding her face from me.

"I don't think that's such a good idea. I should be getting used to seeing less of you, not more." _You can get used to seeing as much of me as you like_.

"Don't let him intimidate you into doing something you don't want, Sakura." She stopped again, sporting what I could only imagine was an extremely bright blush behind the curtain of hair.

"What I want is for Sasuke not to have a reason to threaten anyone other than me." _He shouldn't be threatening you, either_.

"Then say it's over and I won't dispute it." She didn't even think about what I was saying.

"Alright, the game's up, it's ov-"

"Sakura, I don't mean the game, and you have to look me in the eye and mean what you're saying. If you can't do that then I'm not going anywhere." She opened her mouth to reply before stopping and staring at me, face white as a sheet. After what seemed like forever of her staring at me like I was a ghost, she leaned back, scrutinizing me through her hair with narrowed eyes.

"Move your headband." I complied without question, tossing the offending article onto the nearby table where it landed with a loud clash of metal on metal.

"Okay, now open your eye." I did so and nearly immediately she relaxed, curling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin up on them to watch me, cheeks burning. She must have some odd sense, something that attuned her to the sharingan, able to sense when she was being watched with it and maybe even distinguish between them. That would explain a lot about her strange behavior and how she always just seemed to know when I tried using it around her. What kind of technique was that though, I wonder?

"So, do I pass?" She nodded, circling her arms around her legs.

"You can close your eye now, so you're not wasting chakra. So, what brought you to this little epiphany?" I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly. Not exactly the reception I had expected, that's for sure.

"A lot of things, I wouldn't even call it an epiphany, really..." She sighed and ran both hands back through her hair.

"You have the worst sense of timing in the world, I swear." I just smiled.

"It's not me with the bad timing, it's your friends. I think this is my fifth time today trying to say something to you and only now am I not being interrupted." _Once when we were both half-asleep, once before Ino and Temari butted in, once before Hinata and Tenten did exactly the same thing, once before Sasuke showed up, and now. Yep, five times_. She was turning a rather interesting shade of red as she stared at me, once again open-mouthed.

"Kakashi, I can't... I really don't want to bring you into the middle of this..." I smiled. She really was adorable when she blushed.

"Consider it me stepping in then. Please trust me when I say that you don't have anything to worry about. Sasuke won't get away with what he's done to you, I promise." She still looked completely unsure and apprehensive, before she sighed and his her face in her hands.

"You had better know what you're doing..." I chuckled.

"Consider who you're talking to, Sakura." She took her hands away from her face and scratched the back of her neck, giving me the first real smile I had seen since... Sasuke showed up.

"Well, I was talking to myself, but I guess the sentiment applies to you too." She scooted forward on the bed and knelt up to wrap her arms around me, resting her forehead on my shoulder. Once I was sure she wouldn't resist being touched, I reciprocated the hug, nuzzling softly into her neck as my hands grazed inadvertently over the stitches on her mostly bare back. It was nice, being able to hold her like this, despite the circumstances, but there was something wrong. It was a warm night, but not hot enough to warrant the heat that was emanating from her body. Through two shirts, one a sweater, I could feel that she was burning up and pulled away slightly to feel her forehead.

"Do you have a fever?" She nodded, sitting back away from me.

"My body's fighting off something that was in my kit. Luckily, it was one of the poisons I'm already mostly immune to, so it won't be fatal, I'll just be a bit sick for a while. It's not contagious." She reached up to pull away all the hair from in front of her face, wincing as she did so before curling her legs up and resting her chin on her knees.

"Sasuke... he raided me kit. I didn't get to see what he took, but I label all my poisons very clearly. Some of them... a single dose can kill a fully grown bear." She was looking at me in complete seriousness, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"Worried about what Sasuke will do with whatever he took?" She nodded, hugging her knees tightly as I watched the smallest drop of blood drip off of her lip from between her teeth and frowned.

"A bit, yeah. Wouldn't you be? Aren't you? Being poisoned can be one of the slowest and most painful ways to..." She averted her gaze and it was apparent that she still didn't believe that Sasuke was going to jail. Reaching out, I brushed her cheek with my thumb, unintentionally causing her to shy away from me. She wasn't completely comfortable with physical contact yet, I'd just have to keep letting her make the first move.

"You shouldn't be worried, Sakura. Nothing's going to happen to either of us, he's going away for a long time." She started biting her lip again but not as roughly as before, one hand wrapping its fingers in a strand of long pink hair.

"... Things don't always happen the way they're supposed to. I just have this feeling that this isn't the end of things, not by a long shot." Her movements were starting to lose their agitated quality and her eyelids were starting to slowly close. Whatever had been in her system keeping her awake was now wearing off and she was fighting to stay awake and keep talking." Gently, I touched her arm to grab her attention and motioned for her to come closer. Watching me, she did so and sat next to me, he legs dangling over the side of the bed. After a moment of hesitance she leaned into me and let me wrap an arm around her shoulders. She did flinch, but she allowed it all the same.

"Stop worrying, at least until he gets back. Actually, if you want to worry about anything, worry about getting better so that we're not stuck in this room longer than we have to be." She let out a low chuckle before slowly getting up and walking to the window. Bracing herself with a little difficulty and standing up on the sill, she reached up to the very top of the glass and ripped the seal off. Rolling her eyes, she stepped down carefully and pushed the window open fully.

"I don't have to be here. I can leave anytime, I just know that Tsunade's not going to let it rest until I take the stupid psyche exam and I know she doesn't want me seen like this, either." She let go of the window and it fell back to being almost closed, open just enough to let the breeze in before she set the seal gently on the glass again and fastened it there with a short blue spurt of chakra.

"I thought your chakra was being drained?" She shrugged.

"Tsunade couldn't put the cuffs on me because of this," She held up her hand and waved it so the IV line dragged back and forth on the floor. "And the drug she injected me with to do the job is only about seventy percent effective, if the patient's not already under the influence of chakra enhancing or accelerating drugs, at which point the effectiveness drops to a mere ten to fifteen percent. There's a reason why they only use it as circumstances require, as it's highly outclassed by hardware that does the same thing." She came back and climbed onto the bed, flopping out on her back with her hand hanging over the edge, nearly on the floor.

"Getting tired?" She nodded her head before sitting back up, wrists crossed in her lap as she watched me intently.

"Did you really mean what you said? About not going anywhere?" I nodded and she laaid back down, curling up on her side with one arm under the pillow and smiling.

"It's not exactly the way I was planning on letting you know, but I guess the circumstances aren't exactly conducive to an Icha Icha inspired confession scene, huh?" To my surprise, she actually burst out laughing, reaching up to cover her mouth and attempt to stifle it quickly.. Her laughter was encouraging and made me smile too.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, that just wasn't exactly what I was expecting to hear. So, this is just about my body, huh?" She stuck her tongue out at me, albeit in a playful manner, as though she couldn't believe I'd be that shallow.

"Well, about a week ago it was, but that's because I didn't have a chance to appreciate how much you had matured when you spent the better part of our mission acting childish in tandem with Sasuke." I dodged the pillow she flung at me, getting up to retrieve it after it hit the opposite wall with a soft 'poof'. The smile she was wearing said very clearly that she didn't believe me, which was good, because it was only partly true.

"You're a born liar, Kakashi. How can you say that with a straight face?" I tossed the pillow back at her, letting it land softly her lap before grinning brightly.

"Every great lie contains a grain of truth to it." She started to turn red as she held the pillow, probably debating whether or not to throw it at me again.

"...So what part of that was the truth?" I sat back down, satisfied that she wouldn't throw it again.

"It was only about your body for the first two days." She swung it at me, not managing to hit me when instead I caught it, tugging the pillow right out of her hands.

"So when I hit Sasuke for staring at my ass while traveling the second day, I probably should have hit you too?" I tossed the pillow at the wall behind her head so that it hit and fell down to land right behind her, where it belonged.

"Probably, but if you didn't hit me for spying on you stripping by the river, I doubt you would have done it for staring at you." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, huffing lightly.

"I didn't hit you because whether or not you knew it at the time, you were the only person I'd ever be so lenient for." I quirked a smile.

"And it would have bothered you to know that I was admiring you?" She stopped to think for a second before turning bright red and hiding her face in her hands.

"Not necessarily, although it might've been nice to know before I started stripping for you on a regular basis." I chuckled at the embarrassment that hadn't been there at all during the last two weeks.

"Aw, here I thought you were doing it on purpose to tease me." Snapping up, she got up and sat on her feet, hands planted firmly on her hips as she glared down at me. For being covered in bandages and being about a foot shorter than me, she actually looked pretty threatening.

"Speaking of teasing, what exactly were you trying to do tonight, huh?" I tried my hardest to keep my face innocent looking, but unfortunately it wasn't so easy with my face in plain view.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sakura." My innocent smile only seemed to tick her off more.

"Liar! You were doing it on purpose, I know you were!" Ready to back away if needed, I continued to feign ignorance.

"What was I doing?" She stood up and aimed a kick at me, sprawling out on her back on top of the blankets when I caught her foot and pulled it out from under her. She propped herself up on her elbows, reaching over to tear out her IV in annoyance.

"You know exactly what you were doing you brat. After hearing what Naruto said, how could you be so mean?" Staunching the bleeding on the back of her hand with the gown, she tossed the needle and tube so that they hung over the hook on the IV stand. It probably didn't matter that she took them out, she was in perfectly good condition to ingest fluids without help. Letting go of her foot, I let it fall to the bed beside me and smirked at her.

"I wasn't being mean. With your consent I was fully intending to finish what I started." I don't think I've ever seen her turn a shade of red that came even close to rivaling the one she was turning now, which means that she never looked quite so cute, either.

"So if Sasuke hadn't dropped by..." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and averted her eyes to the bedspread. It wasn't often that she seemed to go shy, but when she did she was just adorable.

"Well, that would have depended on you. I wouldn't ever have pushed you to do something you weren't ready for." She giggled, raising a hand to cover her mouth.

"Wow, here you are being such a gentleman, I feel like a lech for wanting to call your bluff earlier." _Hmmm, I hadn't actually considered that. That would have been fun_.

"Without even knowing my feelings? I didn't think you were that kind of girl, Sakura." She leaned forward to smack my arm for my teasing comment and I could see how hard she was fighting sleep.

"Shut up, it's your fault anyway, taking advantage of the sexually frustrated. You should be ashamed of yourself." She scooted forward a little, slowly and continuously coming towards where I sat at the end of the bed.

"The only thing I'm ashamed of is that I didn't slam the window in Ino's face and finish what I wanted to say right then and there." She scooted forward again, this time grabbing my sleeve and tugging it hesitantly while she made her way back towards the pillows. Not fully understanding, I followed her anyway, sitting back down when she stopped.

"And what, pray tell, prompted the urge to tell me right then and there? Take it off." She had started tugging on my vest and I quirked an eyebrow and a smirk as I complied, folding it and laying it on the table where my forehead protector lay.

"Your stirring speech on love sprouting from friendship. I thought that you might not mind giving this a try, if that was the way you honestly felt." She turned slightly pink again, this time tugging on my sweater sleeve.

"Oh, okay. You really didn't figure it out before the date then, did you? This next. Off." I wanted to laugh at her sudden dislike for my clothing, but I held it back as I removed the offending garment and laid it with my vest.

"I didn't figure it out at all, actually. I didn't want to play your little game, I decided that it would be a better idea to try and win your affections myself. Now, why are you so adamant that I strip for you?" She had started tugging on the hem of my undershirt, but knowing that Tsunade would be coming in the morning and possibly anytime in the meantime without warning, I wasn't going to strip right down to skin.

"Really? Why didn't you say something when I accused you of not caring, huh? Take it off, I've kind of gotten used to you sleeping in boxers." I couldn't help but smile, taking her hand away from my shirt and kissing the back of it gently, causing her to blush again. At least she didn't flinch or try to pull away, that's a start.

"I thought about it, but realized that I'd rather discuss it in private, considering that we were already supposed to be dating. Now, you aren't getting me down to boxers while we're here, I'm not going to give Shizune and Tsunade a free show when they come in." She pouted cutely, placing her hands in her lap.

"Does that mean you're going to pull your mask back up?" I shook my head.

"No, I'll have time to pull that up when I hear a key in the lock. Now, get some sleep." I went to get up and return to my own cot so that she could go to sleep, but she grabbed a hold of my hand and pulled me back.

"Stay with me?" I raised an eyebrow at her, but she was looking at the sheets, not me.

"My cot's over there, Sakura." She looked up at me through her eyelashes without raising her head.

"Please? I don't want to...sleep alone..." The tone of her voice had grown quiet, almost fearful. She was probably worried about her nightmares.

"Alright. Let's get some sleep though, Tsunade will probably be here early in the morning." She nodded, laying down on her side and pulling me with her. When she saw that I had gotten comfortable she came and nestled in my arms, curled up like a kitten and succumbing to sleep nearly immediately, a small and peaceful smile gracing her bruised and bitten lips. Smiling myself, I placed a kiss on her forehead and wrapped an arm around her, careful to avoid her injuries. From the expression on her face, you'd never know what she had been through tonight and in spite of the bandages and dressings she was covered in, she was _still_ the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

_Goodnight, Sakura._


	21. Clarification on Chapter 20

_**I can't say this any clearer; Maybe Forever Chapter 20 is the first chapter of The Blood That Binds. **_

_**It does not, and will not, ever exist under the name Maybe Forever. There is a link to the continuation of this story on my profile. The reason the story is divided into parts is for clarity; MF divides chapters up between Kakashi's viewpoint and Sakura's viewpoint at a ratio of 1:2, and the division of perception is radically different for TBTB.**_

_**Thank you for understanding.**_

_**-gamblerrikku**_


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